Britons face severe transport delays

Transport Posted on 23/07/2012

•  
•  
•  

British travellers are set to face extensive air, road and rail travel delays this week. Statistics show that over two million Britons will journey abroad this week, despite the Olympics coming to London. A threatened strike at Heathrow, crowded airports, congested motorways, potential train strikes, flight delays to destinations such as forest-fire hit Spain and Portugal, will make travel plans more arduous than holidaymakers would hope.

Airport efficiency has waned significantly in the last few days, which risks worsening should border staff go ahead with industrial action planned at Heathrow for Thursday 26 August. Britons flying from Heathrow on this date should check updates and leave extra time for procedures such as check-in.

Moreover, figures show that recently British travellers have suffered from less efficient flight services. For example, on Friday 20 July Air Transat's flight from Gatwick to Toronto was delayed by over ten hours and British Airways cancelled transits from Heathrow and Gatwick to Toulouse, Brussels, Amsterdam and Manchester. British holidaymakers are strongly advised to check flight updates with their airline before travelling and to take out travel insurance to cover against delays and cancellation. Likewise, the European Commission recently launched a smartphone app that informs holidaymakers of rights to compensation and support when suffering delays and cancellation on air and rail travel.

Rail voyagers may also encounter interruptions; rail travel in England has been disrupted after a landslide gave way to emergency engineering work between Grantham and Nottingham. Likewise, East Midlands train drivers have announced plans for strike action in early August.

Equally, road travel has taken a turn for the worst; on Friday 20 July heavy congestion was noticed the motorways most important to British voyagers such as the M1 and M25 and the M2 and M20 to Dover and Folkestone are predicted to be problematic this week. As result, holiday-goers who have a plane of a ferry to catch are strongly advised to leave extra time for your journey and to monitor travel news updates.

For updates on delays see the BBC travel news website.

•  
•  
•  

In brief : Transport