At the end of the week in which many schools in England and Wales break up, more UK holidaymakers will be travelling than ever before.
Friday is the busiest day of the year so far for flights from UK airports: 3,255 departures are scheduled, carrying 556,000 passengers.
Rail travellers face a range of disruptions, from crowded trains to engineering works.
On the roads, the RAC warns: “The ‘end of summer term’ getaway weekend will be classically busy.”
The Independent has conducted in-depth research to identify the key pressure points for travellers.
Air
Most airports are reporting record figures. Friday 25 July will be busiest day of the year at Birmingham; at Luton, it will be Sunday 27 July.
Fridays in late July and August see the biggest crowds at five top airports. At London Gatwick, landings and take-offs will be just 65 seconds apart on key dates.
A four-day strike by ground handlers at Portuguese airports – including Faro, Madeira, Lisbon and Porto – could cause problems for some holidaymakers between Friday and Monday, with further strikes threatened during weekends in August.
TAP Portugal has so far cancelled eight flights at Lisbon on Friday, while British Airways has cancelled a round-trip from London Heathrow to Faro. But easyJet, Ryanair and Tui say their flights will be unaffected.
At Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, a pop duo named The Cash Cows have been brought in to entertain waiting passengers at Terminal 5.
Operations at Palma de Mallorca, one of the key destinations for UK holidaymakers, are recovering after thunderstorms caused chaos on Thursday afternoon and evening. Dozens of flights were cancelled and hundreds heavily delayed.
Air-traffic control (ATC) delays are impacting thousands of flights across Europe each day – to the extent that Ryanair, Europe’s biggest budget airline, has taken to sending emails to affected passengers headlined “ATC delayed your holiday”.
Eurocontrol, the pan-European coordination body, said that over the past week, “network hotspots saw 31 per cent of network delays generated by France [due to] capacity and staffing issues compounded by adverse weather".
Operations over Germany and Spain were also affected by “weather and some capacity issues”.
Airspace is constrained across Europe by the closure of Ukrainian skies to all passenger aircraft and Russian skies being off limits to most airlines.
In addition, President Trump’s visit to Scotland is closing airspace in the vicinity of Prestwick and Aberdeen airports and elsewhere. Restrictions begin at around 7pm on Friday 25 July and continue intermittently until 3.30pm on Tuesday 29 July.
Rail
After a week that has seen some extreme delays and cancellations, including at London Waterloo and on the West Coast main line, train operators are hoping that Network Rail infrastructure will cope with the pressure over one of the busiest weekends of the year.
The main line between Brighton, Gatwick airport and London was disrupted on Friday morning because of a points failure at Haywards Heath.
Great Western Railway, serving holiday destinations in the west of England, is warning of cancellations due to staff shortage on Sunday 27 July.
The train operator warns of cancellations on links from Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton and Gloucester, from Westbury to Portsmouth and Weymouth and from Reading to Basingstoke and Gatwick
GWR says: “On these routes fewer trains will run, and those that do will be busier. With some service cancellations expected, please allow extra time for your journey. Where possible, limited rail replacement services will operate.”
Hull Trains has cancelled 30 per cent of its trains serving London on Friday due to a strike by members of the train drivers’ union, Aslef. The dispute over disciplinary action has so far seen 56 days of walkouts, and will continue until 6 September.
Over the weekend rail passengers face a combination of crowds, especially to the seaside, and engineering work that will close links including Crewe to Shrewsbury, Nuneaton to Leicester and halt all trains through Huddersfield.
Several Eurostar trains from Paris and Brussels are running up to 80 minutes late to London St Pancras International “for technical reason”.
The cross-Channel train operator is advising all but “Premier” passengers to arrive at the London terminal for trains to France, Belgium and the Netherlands 75 minutes ahead of departure.
“To ensure you have enough time for all pre-departure steps, please come to the station at the recommended time and not just before the gates close.” Eurostar Premier passengers can allow just 45 minutes.
Roads
The RAC is warning motorists that “Frantic Friday” on 25 July will see extremely busy motorways until around 7pm, as holidaymakers jostle with regular commuter and commercial traffic.
The motoring organisation says that the worst affected roads on Friday will be the M5 between Bristol and Devon and the M25 around London – particularly the southeast quadrant approaching Dartford Crossing. The best time to travel will be after 7pm.
The highest number of holiday journeys over the weekend are predicted to be on Saturday, with three million motorists on the move.
Congestion is expected to be worst between 10am and 5pm. The M6 northbound through the West Midlands, from the M42 junction near Coventry to the M54 turn-off past Wolverhampton, is expected to be particularly busy, as is the A82 from Glasgow to Loch Lomond.
An additional 2.7 million trips are expected on Sunday 27 July, The optimum time to reach a UK destination is before 11 am. From then onwards many motorways and trunk roads will be busy all day to 7pm, with the worst congestion predicted southbound from Wigan (junction 27) to the Stafford turn-off at junction 13.
Ferry/Eurotunnel
Motorists heading for France via LeShuttle through the Channel Tunnel to Calais and Dunkirk face the biggest crowds on Friday. Drivers must go through the EU’s border before boarding the ferry or train to France.
The Port of Dover will see more than 10,000 departing cars on Friday and Saturday. Doug Bannister, chief executive of the UK’s busiest ferry port, told The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “Those are our peak travel days of the year.
“Please don't turn up earlier than two hours before you're sailing. We know the sailings and we know the bookings on the sailings and if they all come through in an even rate then we can get on top of it.”
LeShuttle, carrying cars through the Channel Tunnel, will see its busiest day on Friday 25 July.
A spokesperson for Getlink, which owns the tunnel and runs LeShuttle, said: “We wish to reassure our customers that we’ve closely analysed travel patterns, identified high-demand days, and taken a comprehensive approach to capacity management to help everyone travel with confidence this summer.
“We advise checking in at least one hour before departure, and no more than two hours before, to allow time for border checks and boarding.”
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