Drivers have been brought to a standstill along two major routes in Kent due to delays in Channel crossings.
Under Operation Brock, thousands of lorries heading for the Port of Dover or Eurotunnel have been able to park along a 23-mile stretch of the M20 from junction 8 to junction 11, causing chaos to surrounding roads.
The operation involves using a moveable barrier to create a contraflow system enabling lorries to queue and other traffic to keep moving in both directions. However, it has been overwhelmed, with the area hit by long queues every day since Friday.
The A20 Roundhill Tunnel is also closed under the Dover TAP scheme to prevent HGVs from jumping the queue.
Image: A view of lorries queued in Operation Brock on the M20 near Ashford in Kent on Thursday morningThe Port of Dover has urged passengers to “allow plenty of time for their journey” and said it is working “tirelessly to move traffic as effectively as possible.”
Advertisement“We served 30,000 departing passengers, triple that of the corresponding weekend in 2021,” it said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the commencement of the busy Easter getaway period coincided with the ongoing impact of reduced ferry services and bad weather that affected remaining operators earlier in the week, causing one vessel to be taken out of service for a couple of days. This caused some delays, notably for freight.”
More from BusinessBad weather has added to the problems with DP World, the owner of sackings scandal firm P&O Ferries, saying it had suspended on-ship operations at its Southampton terminal because of high winds.
Easter breaks face disruption
Those planning an Easter getaway are facing the prospect of a frustrating, and likely more expensive, journey than they were hoping for when holiday plans were made.
In addition to traffic jams, there is disruption for trips to France amid the fallout from the P&O saga, airports are struggling to cope with higher demand and, to cap it all, there are big engineering works planned on the railways.
Here, Sky News takes a look at how each major area for travel is shaping up as the holiday rush gathers speed.
4:04 Investigations opened into P&OFerries
The loss of many P&O Ferries services is tipped to have a major impact over the Easter period – with queues of trucks heading towards Dover reported on Thursday morning to stretch for 10 miles along the M20 in Kent, with surrounding routes also clogged.
There has been a gaping hole in capacity, especially for popular cross-Channel services, since P&O found itself in hot water over its decision to make almost 800 seafarers redundant via a video message last month.
That is because some ships with their new crews have failed safety checks while others have been unable to run.
Crucially, an agreement that meant rival DFDS would carry P&O passengers is coming to an end.
From Friday, its regular services to and from Dover or Newhaven to France will be unable to take P&O customers.
DFDS told Sky News it could simply not extend the 14-day deal because its ships were already full.
“As we look towards the weekend and Easter, we have very high booking levels, which sadly means we won’t have any spare capacity available for other operators.
“We will of course do everything we can outside the peak weekends to carry as many P&O customers as possible.”
Its statement added: “We are adding extra sailings where we can, and have also been able to move some traffic to our new unaccompanied route from Sheerness to Calais to help relieve the congestion in and around the port.”
0:32 P&O boss: Hard ‘but necessary decision’P&O Ferries said it was getting ready to resume services on “a number of vital routes”, adding that it has been working with regulators to make sure the ships are safe to sail.
Two of the vessels – Pride of Kent and Spirit of Britain – are expected to be ready to sail between Dover and Calais by next week, subject to regulatory sign-off.
The European Causeway is also expected to sail between Larne and Cairnryan, along with the Pride Of Hull between Hull and Rotterdam, the company claimed.
A spokesperson said: “For those customers still affected by wider disruption, we are providing refunds to all passengers booked to travel with us to whom we have not been able to provide alternative services.
“Customers can contact our customer service team by email or phone for a refund. Anyone who has had their trip disrupted with P&O will also receive a free trip to be used on a future journey with us, that can be taken later in the year.”
Image: Eurotunnel’s Easter holiday season began last weekEurostar and Getlink, which owns the Eurotunnel service, are taking some of the strain.
A spokesperson for Getlink said: “We have very high bookings for the coming weekend and the next on our passenger service, and bookings continue to flow in.
“We will be running up to four departures per hour at peak travel times to make sure everyone can travel.
“Our truck shuttles are also running with very high volumes, with additional departures being made available to carry the extra traffic.”
It added: “Traffic congestion in Kent at this time is the result of the absence of three P&O ferries from the short straits route during the busiest period of sustained cross-Channel traffic since 2019.”
High winds were said to be adding to the delays at Dover on Thursday.
Airports
Disruption at airports and for airlines has been a theme of the past week as Easter holidays began in some parts of the country and for many private schools.
0:15 Queues for Manchester Airport securityThe main issue is one of staffing, with both clearly unable to handle the pick-up in demand they have seen in the run-up to Easter following the damage inflicted on employment in the sector by the pandemic.
Passenger numbers at airports will swell this weekend and into the following week, though the industry body AOA was currently unable to put an estimate on the numbers expected when contacted by Sky News.
Compounding efforts to hire new workers and resolve queues – which have hit the likes of Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham airports – are backlogs in security clearance procedures to work “airside”.
It is understood these are currently taking up to six months to complete.
Additional police officers have been brought in to help handle queues, and likely frayed tempers, at Manchester Airport which has endured some of the worst queues.
Some airlines operating there are offering holidaymakers the chance to check bags in the night before their flight.
A shortage of Border Force staff has also been highlighted by airports as exacerbating passenger delays while some people are being turned away because they do not have the correct COVID documentation for their destination.
A spokesperson for the UK’s largest airport, Heathrow, told Sky News it was deploying as many extra staff as possible to help cope with the rush.
“The Easter holiday is the first time where UK travel restrictions have been fully removed since the start of the pandemic and we are expecting passenger numbers, not seen since early March 2020.
“We have been preparing for this for many months, but like most airports we do anticipate that the travel experience may take slightly longer during peak periods.”
Airlines
Their efforts to get back up to speed have been hampered by COVID infections among staff – hitting easyJet the worst over the past week with dozens of flights cancelled daily.
2:24 ‘Perfect storm’ hitting UK airports and airlinesBritish Airways has cancelled a handful of services because of staff sickness but its wider departure board situation is complicated by destinations affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and COVID lockdowns in places such as China.
Its reduced schedules also reflect struggles to fix IT systems that have caused disruption – the worst in February – with its flying programme curtailed until the end of May while it “rebuilds” operational resilience.
The advice for passengers is to check what COVID clearances you may need for your destination before arriving at the airport and leave plenty of time to clear check-in and security to avoid disappointment.
Rail
It is a feature of Easter travel that going by train is never easy.
Network Rail traditionally uses the holiday, away from peak commuting demand, to carry out essential maintenance and it has highlighted three major works that will disrupt passengers’ journeys.
• The West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central will be closed throughout the Easter weekend. Customers planning journeys between London Euston and Scotland are advised to travel either side of the long weekend. It warned this will affect Liverpool and Manchester City football supporters travelling to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday 16 April and Manchester City fans going to the Vitality Women’s FA Cup semi-final.
Image: Diogo Jota and Fabinho celebrate with Jurgen Klopp after beating Nottingham Forest to reach the FA Cup semi-finals• No Southern services will be able to run to and from London Victoria, with most trains diverted into London Bridge.
• There will be no direct trains between London and Stansted Airport at Easter, with buses replacing Stansted Express trains between Waltham Cross and the airport.
Road
A surge in fuel prices is not expected to deter many families desperate to reconnect following the end of restrictive COVID measures.
Research from motoring groups on the numbers expected to take to the roads over the Easter weekend itself are not due until next week but it is already clear that the start of the school holidays will be very busy.
The RAC estimates 20.8 million leisure trips will be taken by drivers this weekend alone.
Its survey of 1,435 drivers’ plans suggests that Saturday is likely to see the greatest numbers on the roads.
National Highways urged motorists to plan their journeys in advance and added that roadworks on major routes would not be expected to cause more disruption than witnessed on a typical Friday peak.
It added that some works would be suspended in time for the Easter weekend.