Two million UK holidaymakers to escape wet August weather
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Posted on: August 22nd, 2008 by Dave Smith
Around two million Brits are about to escape the cold and damp of one of the wettest Augusts on record by heading abroad for the bank holiday weekend, according to a report issued by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA).
The ABTA is predicting that Friday 22 and 23 August will be the busiest days of the long weekend, and that approximately one million travellers will depart from airports in the south-east of England alone.
Heathrow Airport, as usual, will be the busiest gateway, seeing more than 420,000 passengers departing on holidays, followed by Gatwick at 260,000, Stansted Airport at 160,000 and Luton, with 80,000 departing passengers.
Manchester Airport leads the numbers for regional gateways, with 160,000 passengers expected to pass through during the bank holiday period. In Scotland, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports combined are preparing to handle a total of 140,000 holiday travellers.
The president of ABTA, Justin Fleming, commented: “The August bank holiday is our traditional goodbye to the summer and is always very busy. This year is no exception with large numbers escaping to guaranteed sunshine, sandy beaches and warm seas.”
Favourite destinations for the upcoming holiday weekend are the Balearics, the Spanish mainland and Greece. City breaks are also showing strong demand, with Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome popular for long weekends.
www.abta.com