Easter travel disruption warning with hundreds of closures planned: Traffic live

More than a hundred workers at Gatwick airport are striking over pay and pensions this Easter weekend.

Members of the Unite union working for ground handling firm Red Handing have rejected a last-minute deal to call off the strikes.

That means some baggage handlers, check-in staff and flight dispatchers will strike from Friday until Tuesday morning.

The industrial action could affect about 50 flights a day.

Unite said there would be “major disruption” for passengers flying with Norwegian, TAP and Air Peace airlines.

But Nick Williams, head of passenger operations at Gatwick, said only a small number of airlines would be affected.

“It’s a very small number of airlines who don’t operate a huge number of flights, so we’re not talking about big-scale impact,” he said.

“We’re working really closely with those airlines to try and mitigate that impact and hope that as many of those flights operate as close to schedule as possible.

“We’d advise passengers to check their airline of the weekend.”

Delays are expected on the M25 until midday following a collision.

Lanes on the M25 anticlockwise between junctions J9 and J8 are closed, according to National Highways.

Disruption is expected to last until 12.15.

Severe delays expected on the M4 due to a collision just outside Swindon.

National Highways has said the M4 eastbound exit slip at Membury Services has closed.

The area is expected to clear at between 12:30 and 12:45 .

On Good Friday morning queues are building up at Dover.

The Port of Dover said at 8.10am: “P&O traffic is causing extended processing times at Border Control.”

Passport checks for France are conducted at the port before travellers board ferries.

Motorists are told to expect a wait of around 40 minutes ahead of the French border post, and the same length of time for P&O Ferries check-in.

The wait for DFDS Ferries check-in is 15 minutes.

DFDS Ferries says: “We are aware of the queues to arrive at check-in. Please be assured that once you arrive at check-in. we will ensure you are checked-in on the first available departure.”

In previous years, Dover has been the scene of severe delays during the Easter holidays, as coaches converge on the UK’s main ferry port.

But the failure of the European Union to introduce the entry-exit scheme as promised in November 2024 means journeys are smoother than they might have been, with no need for vehicle occupants to be fingerprinted or photographed.

Bigger problem are likely to face motorists returning from France to Dover between Saturday 19 and Monday 21 April.

Last weekend queues of 90 minutes built up for the border formalities at Calais, where both French and UK frontier staff check documents before passengers board their ferries.

The Government has lifted over a thousand miles of road works this Easter in a bid to make “journey’s smoother”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X: “No one wants to spend their Easter weekend stuck in traffic.

“So we’re lifting more than a thousand miles of roadworks over Easter.

“And to save you money, we’ve frozen fuel duty and delivered record funding to fix potholes.

“Drivers — I’m on your side.”

Seven flood alerts are in place across the South of England.

Localised flooding is possible from surface water in parts of South West England on Friday and into Saturday.

Land, roads and some properties may flood and there may be travel disruption.

Amber flood alerts are in the following areas:

– Borehole at River Hill, near Flamstead

-Kimpton and Lilley Bottom

-the Candovers and Old Alresford

-Great Shefford, Henley and Assendon

-West Ilsley, East Ilsley, Compton, Chilton and West Hagbourne

-River Mimram in Hertfordshire

It comes after the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for the southwest of England on Friday, covering tourist hotspots including Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

The wet weather is likely to cause difficult driving conditions and disruptions to travel over the weekend.

Lines are blocked between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street, due to a trespass incident.

Trains running between these stations may be delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised, National Rail said.

Disruption is expected until 08:15 am.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for the southwest of England on Friday, covering tourist hotspots including Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

The forecasters warned that a prolonged spell of rain, some of it heavy, will likely cause difficult driving conditions and some disruption to travel as millions hit the road over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Lunchtime on Good Friday is expected to have the worst traffic of the Easter weekend.

The A303 westbound to Stonehenge and the M5 southbound J15 at the RAC tower north of Bristol are expected to be the worst affected.

Journey times are likely to be nearly an hour longer for both meaning drivers could be stuck in their vehicles for more than half as long as usual.

RAC breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said: “We’re still expecting to see extremely high levels of traffic from Thursday onwards, with the greatest number of Easter getaway trips planned for three years.”

Aviation analytics firm Cirium says Good Friday, 18 April, will be the busiest day overall, with 2,949 flights taking off from UK airports – a departure every 30 seconds on average.

Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, confirms its busiest day will be Good Friday.

The carrier plans more than 1,100 flights to or from UK airports carrying up to 145,000 passengers.

The top sunshine destinations are Dalaman in Turkey and the Spanish islands of Mallorca and Tenerife.

But with air traffic control centres across Europe still chronically short of staff, holidaymakers face the worst disruption caused by congestion in the skies in a quarter-century.

Ryanair says 36.2 million of its passengers have been impacted by air traffic control restrictions in the last year, with more than 200,000 flights delayed.

Travellers to and from France and Spain are worst affected.