UK airports brace for record numbers of travellers returning from summer holidays

One passenger per second will be arriving at Gatwick airport on Sunday

Peak season: an easyJet Airbus at Gatwick Airport (Simon Calder)

At the end of a summer when more British holidaymakers have gone abroad than ever, UK airports are braced for record numbers of returning travellers.

East Midlands is expected to have the busiest day in its history, with 22,000 passengers predicted, while Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted are expecting very high numbers of inbound passengers.

At Gatwick alone, 88,000 will be flying in at the end of their holidays, an average rate of one passenger per second. In addition, 74,000 travellers will be departing from Gatwick.

The Sussex airport is the biggest base for easyJet, which will be flying more than any other day so far this summer – with almost 300,000 seats, the vast majority of them filled.

The peak in arrivals at Stansted and Manchester will be on Monday, with around 55,000 arriving at each airport.

Eurotunnel is experiencing its busiest weekend through the Channel Tunnel from Calais to Folkestone, with motorists told: “Plan to check-in at least 45 minutes but no more than 2 hours before your booked departure time.

“If it’s a busy day, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to accommodate you on an earlier or later departure.”

Additional staff are on duty to cope with the rush.

Holidaymakers returning from southern France by train on Saturday faced heavy delays, with damage to overhead wires on the high-speed line from the south-west to Paris and suicides halting services on two other lines.

Rail passengers in the UK are encountering many problems.

London Euston is closed for the third weekend running because of engineering works on the line through North Wembley.

Normally an average of 100,000 passengers per day would be expected to use Euston at the weekend for journeys on the West Coast main line.

Many Virgin Trains passengers switched to the East Coast main line, but trains between Scotland and England were delayed by up to an hour because of a points failure between Dunbar and Berwick.

Travellers in the troubled Northern Rail area faced another day of disruption on Saturday in a long-running dispute over the role of guards. Around 70 per cent of trains were cancelled.

On Sunday, Britain’s busiest railway station, London Waterloo, will have fewer trains than normal on the third day of a strike by RMT members in a parallel dispute.

Liverpool Lime Street is closed completely on Sunday for engineering work.

Meanwhile travellers using Ayr station in southwest Scotland are set to experience problems all month because South Ayrshire Council has imposed an exclusion zone that includes parts of the station. The adjoining station hotel building has been deemed unsafe.

“Train services may be cancelled, will run with a reduced number of carriages, or will be replaced by buses,” said ScotRail.