Busiest weekend ever expected for UK airports as summer holiday getaway begins

Exclusive: Several airports and airlines will experience their busiest-ever day today

In control: Manchester airport is preparing for its busiest-ever summer (Manches)

In the busiest-ever summer for overseas travel, today will be the first of several extreme days for Britain’s airport infrastructure with a record number of travellers expected through several of the nation’s airports.

The Independent has surveyed a dozen of the UK’s top airports, as well as leading airlines.

Both of Scotland's leading airports expect record days on Friday 19 July. At Edinburgh airport, 52,000 passengers are expected to fly in and out. The same number is predicted on two Mondays: 22 July and 12 August.

The busiest routes are to and from Dubai, New York and Palma.

Glasgow’s busiest day of the year is set to be Friday 19 July, with 33,800 passengers; though Sunday 8 September is expected to top that with 34,100.

Friday 19 July is expected to be the busiest at Liverpool John Lennon airport, with an estimated 8,800 departing passengers. The following Friday, as well as Tuesday 13 August, is predicted to be almost as busy.

For inbound arrivals, Friday 6 September is likely to have the longest queues at passport control, with 8,900 passengers touching down. That will also be the busiest day in the airport’s history, with an estimated 17,600 travellers in total.

Liverpool’s top destinations are both on the island of Ireland, Belfast International and Dublin, with the next three all in Spain: Palma, Malaga and Alicante.

Manchester’s busiest day for departures is expected to be Friday 26 July, with 56,653 passengers expected to depart from the UK’s third-biggest airport.

For arrivals, 57,825 passengers are predicted on Friday 30 August. The busiest overall day is Friday 23 August, with 112,599 passengers expected to depart and arrive – an average of 1.3 per minute.

The top five destinations are Palma, Amsterdam and Dublin.

From London Stansted, Monday 29 July will be busiest for outbound travellers, with 49,358 passengers expected.

The following Friday, 2 August, will be busiest for arrivals and overall in the summer, with 101,028 passengers expected to depart and arrive.

Palma is the top destination, followed by Rome’s Ciampino airport and Faro in Portugal.

Across at Luton, Friday 9 August will be busiest for both departures and overall passenger numbers, with a total of 66,000 expected.

The two final Fridays in July will see 33,000 departures.

Amsterdam, Bucharest, Tel Aviv and Budapest are the top destinations, with Malaga squeezing in at fifth as the leading Spanish choice.

At Newcastle, Sunday 21 July will be busiest for departures, with 11,500 passengers leaving. The same number will arrive on Sunday 1 September.

The busiest day overall is expected to be Sunday 4 August. Palma, Alicante and Malaga are the top destinations.

For Birmingham, Tuesday 23 July is busiest for outbound passengers, with almost 25,000 taking off. The busiest day overall Friday 16 August. The top destinations are Dublin, Palma and Dubai.

Nearby East Midlands is expecting its busiest day for arrivals to be much earlier than other airports: Friday 26 July, with 10,906 passengers expected. This is ahead of the busiest day for departures, Monday 29 July with 11,253 passengers expected.

Palma once again tops the destination screen, with Alicante and Faro next most popular.

For Aberdeen, Tuesday 23 July is predicted to be busiest for inbound services, with 4,800 passengers, while Friday 6 September will be busiest overall at 9,300. The top overseas destinations are out of line with other airports: Amsterdam, Stavanger and Paris.

Southampton will be busiest on Monday 22 July, with 6,700 passengers passing through.

Belfast International has already had its forecast busiest day of the year, on 31 May, but it is predicting almost as busy a day on 2 September. The busiest domestic routes are to Gatwick, Liverpool and Stansted, and the top three abroad are all to Spain: Alicante, Malaga and Palma.

Friday 19 July will be the busiest day ever for easyJet, with 312,000 passengers on 1,970 flights across Europe. More than 100,000 of them will be taking off from UK airports.

The airline told The Independent that it will fly a record 9.4 million passengers to and from UK airports this summer between Thursday 18 July and Sunday 8 September.

The busiest single day for UK operations for easyJet is expected to be Friday 6 September, with 193,125 passengers flying in and out of British airports. The previous Monday, 2 September, will be almost as busy with 191,883 passengers.

The easyJet routes with the highest number of passengers are all to and from Gatwick: to Milan Malpensa, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Malaga and Geneva.

Ryanair says it will fly 8.3 million passengers in the same spell – fewer than easyJet because it now has a much smaller UK domestic operation.

The peak days in the spell are Saturdays and Mondays, when more than 160,000 passengers a day are predicted.

The airline’s busiest routes are all to and from Dublin – from Stansted, Gatwick and Manchester.

Thomas Cook says 19-21 July will be the busiest weekend of the year, with 54,000 passengers on 244 outbound flights to 47 destinations.

Dalaman and Antalya in Turkey are the most popular locations.

Jet2 is planning its busiest-ever summer, with 100 aircraft in operation. Every Saturday from 20 July to 31 August is expected to be busy, with a peak on 24 August.

Long-haul, Virgin Atlantic predicts Saturday 20 July to be a peak day, with 9,500 outbound passengers. Inbound, Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September will be busiest, with over 9,600 travellers flying to UK airports.

Heathrow-New York JFK is the busiest route, closely followed by Gatwick to Orlando and Manchester to Orlando.

Gatwick and Heathrow airports declined to provide the requested information.