Jams, strikes and engineering work add up to an Easter holiday bunfight

theguardian.com:

With the approach of the Easter holiday weekend comes the time-honoured question, immortalised by the Clash: should I stay or should I go? To which the answer has long been – how about neither?

Those who choose to holiday in rainy Britain will be grappling with record traffic jams or a semi-functioning railway handily axed at its London roots by seasonal engineering works. Trips abroad must be navigated via strikes at Heathrow, and whatever French air traffic controllers decide to do (hint: strike). Home or away, the cost of travel and accommodation has surged.

The good news, for holidaymakers and businesses that cater for them, is that the logistics are looking better than last Easter, when there appeared to be no easy way to flee these islands. However, despite P&O Ferries being back and sailing – after the pause in 2022 for it to illegally fire all its crew and employ cheap foreign labour on short-term contracts – those opting to leave the country via the Port of Dover quickly ran into another traffic jam on Friday, with coach traffic facing “significant delays”.

Meanwhile, airlines and airports believe they have, by and large, managed to recruit enough people on slightly better pay to get their booked passengers away, after the rude awakening of last Easter, when staff shortages led to huge queues, delays and widespread cancellations

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Flight numbers are returning to pre-Covid levels as the recovery continues for airlines. In total about 44,000 flights will take off from UK airports over this two-week school holiday period, potentially carrying up to 8 million passengers, with Dublin, Amsterdam, Málaga, Palma and Alicante the most popular destinations.

Easter weekend will be about 12% busier than last year, but still 12%