School's out and the great Christmas getaway has begun in earnest as thousands of holidaymakers descend on our airports.
With an estimated 2.5 million Britons heading for warmer climes or visiting relatives abroad before Christmas, airport authorities are asking passengers to watch what they pack and not turn up too early.
Heathrow Airport bore the brunt of the conges
tion.
The terminals were heaving and passengers were making use of marquees pitched in the car parks in the wake of this years' security alerts.
Some 2.8 million passengers are expected to travel out of the hub between now and New Year.
According to a Heathrow spokesman, many passengers are causing long queues by trying to take wrapped Christmas presents on board.
"We have recruited and trained 100 extra security staff and opened an extra 13 extra security lanes since the threat level was raised to critical," he said.
"We are asking passengers to take care about what they pack and check our website www.heathrowairport.com or call our helpline 08700 000123 for flight information and packing advice.
"This is one of the busiest weekends of the year," said Leo Seaton, a British Airways spokesman.
"Many passengers are simply turning up too early, such that they can't actually check in and are just milling about the concourse.
"BA is advising its customers travelling short-haul not to arrive at the airport terminal any earlier than 2 hours before their flight and, for those travelling long- haul, no earlier than 3 hours before flight." At other airports the situation appeared less hectic. Claire Ryan, terminal manager at Gatwick, where 1.3 million passengers are expected over the holiday period, said: "I was a little nervous about today.
"It was very, very busy at the start of the day and we have experienced the impact of the school holidays, but we had plenty of staff on hand and there were no significant queues.
"When you have that many passengers in the same place at the same time, they
do have the ability to confound the situation but everything has gone according to plan."
In Birmingham, the situation was equally positive.
A spokesman said: "The Santa flights (chartered flights taking children to
destinations such as Lapland) have started and
the ski flights are starting gradually, but at the
moment it's business as normal."
At Stansted, a favourite for low-cost airlines, passengers were advised to give themselves plenty of time to get to the airport.
"The earlier you get there the better," said spokesman Robbie Barrigan.
Manchester terminal duty manager Ann Campbell said the airport had been very busy and was expected to get busier still.
"Next weekend we're expecting 155,000 people to fly. Passenger numbers are 5.2 per cent up on the same period last year and 15 per cent up on normal traffic," she said.
There was further
travel chaos at Heathrow yesterday after the baggage system at Terminal 4 broke down.
No flights were cancelled, according to British Airways, but the glitch delayed all flights and some passengers were forced to depart without their baggage.
