Dover chaos adds to strain on UK’s continental coach operators

theguardian.com:

It was once the staple for group travel abroad, favoured by school trips and touring retirees alike, but it now looks like Britain could be falling out of love with the continental coach journey.

Many are likely to have been put off for life by chaos at Dover, as people try to get away for the Easter holiday. An estimated 20,000 people got caught up in gridlock last weekend alone after delays in border processing that forced vehicles to queue for up to 14 hours.

Much of that delay was down to Brexit – something the home secretary, Suella Braverman, was accused of denying before her department conceded it had played a role – which is putting particular strain on coach businesses with its time-consuming border checks that mean passengers who were once waved through must now have their passports stamped.

But that is only one of a swathe of challenges the industry faces, which includes passengers cutting back amid the cost of living crisis, staffing issues and soaring fuel prices in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

John Johnson, who has been running coach tours to Europe from the UK since 1979, described last week’s delays as “horrendous”. He took over the business, Johnsons Coach & Bus Travel, from family, and its first operation began in 1909 using a simple cart and horse. Johnson remembered fondly the heyday for European tours as the 1970s and 80s. “This was a very good time and then, of course there was the downward trend that started when cheap air travel came in,” he said.

Today there are 2,500 coach operators in the UK, employing about 40,000 people, with 80% of the businesses being small and medium-sized enterprises.

While many still ply the cross-Channel route, reports are increasing of British tour operators ditching