BRITS ABROAD

Many have made plans to take an overseas holiday this year - but there has been far more chaos and less travel than before the pandemic

MILLIONS of UK passengers braved the travel chaos to holiday overseas in April - but numbers are still well below what they were before the pandemic. With 5.6 million visits overseas - 20 times more than there were in April 2021, when many pandemic restrictions were still in place - it seems lots of families enjoyed the Easter holidays by taking a break abroad.

But that was still a third less than the 8.4 million trips overseas that were made in April 2019, before the pandemic - showing that many people are still not confident about leaving the UK.

And even despite fewer travellers than before the pandemic, airports and ferry terminals were less able to cope with the demand.

With the aviation industry struggling to cope with a shortage of staff, many passengers who did choose to travel overseas in April particularly during the Easter holidays - had to wait in line in huge queues, while many flights were delayed or even cancelled, and luggage was lost at airports.

There were also queues and delays at ferry terminals - and P&O Ferries suspended sailings from Dover to Calais after sacking nearly 800 members of staff and replacing them with agency workers.

Travellers also faced lengthy delays on the roads on their way to an airport or ferry terminal; while there were long queues at St Pancras for passengers waiting to check in to Eurostar’s rail services through the Channel Tunnel.

Those who did make it abroad spent £4.1 billion while on their trip, 20 times more than in April 2021 but 18% less than the £5 bn spent in 2019.

Meanwhile, there were an estimated 2.1 million visits to the UK from overseas nations, 27 times the 81,000 who visited in April 2021 when many travel restrictions were still in force.

Those visitors spent around £1.7bn, 14 times more than the £122m spent in April 2021.

But that was down from prepandemic travel, when there were an estimated 3.2 million visits to the UK in April 2019 and £1.8bn spent. That means visits have dropped by 33% since before coronavirus and spending by 9%. Eight in 10 visitors to the UK were from Europe (80%), with around 4% from North America and the rest from other countries outside Europe.

The most common reason to visit the UK was “visiting friends or relatives” (37%) with about one in three (34%) travelling for a holiday.

Of Brits travelling abroad, six in 10 said they were going on holiday.