Easter Monday traffic and airport queues: People warned about bank holiday travel chaos and 14m cars

Holidaymakers are being warned to brace for another manic Monday of travel chaos with huge queues expected at airports and 14million cars on the road during the Easter bank holiday as the long weekend ends. 

Unlike the Easter getaway before the weekend which was staggered over several days, all the traffic will be condensed into one day, British motoring association the AA has warned. 

Unions said airports also face queues at passport gates as many who took Easter breaks abroad jet back into the UK tomorrow before school restarts on Tuesday.

Added to the misery, more train passengers will push on the road with 530 rail upgrades - costing £83m - taking place tomorrow, experts say. 

Holidaymakers are being warned to brace for another manic Monday of travel chaos with huge queues at airports and 14million cars on the road during the Easter bank holiday at the end of the long weekend. Pictured: Slow moving traffic on the M3 near Egham in Surrey on Friday. 

Unlike the Easter getaway before the weekend which was staggered over several days, this will all be condensed into one day, British motoring association the AA has warned. Pictured: Passengers check-in at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, west London on Saturday, April 9

A total of 47 million car trips between Good Friday and Easter Monday are being made, combined AA figures for leisure outings and normal journeys showed. 

AA spokesman Tony Rich said: 'A high proportion of people will be travelling on Monday and we are preparing for heavy traffic.

'The day will see people returning home and also a high number of daytrips, to coasts in places where the weather is OK, or inland if the weather is not so good.' 

Immigration Services Union general secretary Lucy Moreton said: 'This weekend, catastrophically understaffed, with people travelling again, we anticipate queues will move from security-based queues going outward to Border Force queues coming back in.'

RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: 'Rail engineering works lead to more road congestion as some people travel by car instead.'

And there is no respite on rail as around 500 replacement bus journeys over Easter turn usually rapid train trips into multi-change nightmares.

West Coast Line works are seeing coaches used as almost 50 miles of the route is shut between London Euston and Milton Keynes.

And every Stansted Express rail traveller is being ferried by bus to and from the airport.

Unions said airports also face queues at passport gates and luggage carousels as many who took Easter breaks abroad jet back into the UK tomorrow before school restarts on Tuesday. Pictured: Passengers check-in in terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport, west London on Saturday, April 9

Richard Freeston-Clough, spokesperson for passenger watchdog London TravelWatch, said: 'More leisure rail journeys are taking place as it is Easter - but engineering projects mean disruption.'

A Network Rail spokesperson said: 'The vast majority of the network is open for business as usual. Where our projects are hitting services, we aim to keep disruption to a minimum by using alternative routes and using of buses as the last resort.'

Transport chiefs blamed the Easter travel surge on the public's desire to make up for missing out on family visits and trips out during the pandemic.

The AA said drivers' desire to travel had not been dented by soaring petrol costs, nor concerns over petrol station supplies running short after protestors Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion prevented tankers leaving some oil depots last week.

Mr Rich said: 'People's desire to travel is making this Easter a bit like Christmas, with people seeing friends and family after not seeing them very much during Covid.

'Our survey shows people want to make the most of the holiday weekend. It shows the demand to do what we have missed during the past two years.

'The weather is a factor, and encourages more travel, and people's determination to go on trips outweighs concern over fuel costs.'