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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent

Can Europe avoid a summer of holiday flight and cross-Channel travel chaos?

Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check at Heathrow
Holiday flights to Europe have kept growing despite long airport queues. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Holidaymakers have faced numerous stresses in recent years when planning and budgeting for the sacred summer holiday. Holiday flights to Europe have kept growing despite a pandemic, a cost of living crisis and long airport queues, but summer 2026 threatens to bring fresh anxieties.

Legacies of Brexit mean longer border checks for Britons and most non-EU nationals to get into much of Europe, and the US-Israel war on Iran has prompted fears that airlines may not have enough fuel for every scheduled flight.

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