Airlines, airports and travel operators are preparing for one of their busiest times of the year as Britain goes bank holiday crazy, British holiday makers making the most of their August summer bank holiday.
Airports such as Gatwick and Heathrow in London say things are already hotting up, with one of the travel industry’s bumper periods of the year well underway as thousands of families jet off for their hols and make the most of some fun in the sun in popular destinations such as Spain, Turkey and Cyprus.
In total ABTA estimates that 1.8 million Brits will leave the country during the August bank holiday weekend 2010.
Friday is expected to be the busiest day but over the whole weekend the numbers of people leaving the country are expected to be enormous.
ABTA says in the South East alone over 420,000 will be leaving the UK from Heathrow, 250,000 from Gatwick, 136,000 from Stansted and 65,000 from Luton.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands will jet off through regional airports including 145,000 from Manchester Airport and 25,000 from Leeds Bradford Airport.
In Scotland 116,000 will be flying out from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen city airports.
Eurostar also says around 60,000 people will use its services for holiday trips abroad to Europe over the bank holiday weekend with France the most popular destination.
ABTA Chairman John McEwan, says: “This weekend is the last great getaway of the summer and I am delighted to see that so many customers are taking the opportunity to head off on holiday overseas; as well as the two million who will be sampling the delights of our beach resorts and countryside as well as the beautiful cities here at home.”
ABTA had identified other main holiday destinations for the bank holiday period as beach destinations such as the Balearic Islands and the Greek Islands. North America, the next major holiday market for Brits, outside Europe, is also proving popular with Orlando and New York leading the way.
However European cities: Paris, Amsterdam, Venice and Dublin are the top city break attraction for UK travellers over the weekend.
Tour operators and airlines are also confirming the late summer holiday rush.
Low fares airline Monarch has revealed a mammoth weekend is expected for its destination flights with more than 100,000 passengers heading off to warmer climes over the bank holiday weekend – a 10 per increase on the same period last year.
Commenting on the bank holiday getaway Monarch Managing Director Tim Jeans says:
“We have seen a huge surge in demand for flights to our core western Med destinations this summer, particularly those to Spain and the Spanish Islands and the additional flights we have added during the last week of the school holidays is in direct response to this.
“Monarch’s traffic figures have already recorded their highest ever passenger numbers for July, coupled with the highest load factor ever and the sheer number of people travelling this bank holiday weekend, proves that 2010 is certainly not the year of the staycation.”
Monarch operates scheduled flights to Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal, Cyprus and Turkey from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports.
Online travel sites are also benefiting from the bank holiday travel buzz and many expect a last minute clamber for late deals.
Skyscanner CEO Gareth Williams said: “Bank holidays are notoriously busy and this has been the most searched for weekend we’ve seen this year so we anticipate hundreds of additional British holiday makers will be flying off.”
