Three-hour delays at Dover as bad weather and train strikes hit summer getaway

Lorries queue along the A20 in Kent as they wait to enter the Port of Dover on Saturday. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Holidaymakers face delays of up to three hours at the Port of Dover as poor weather and train strikes hit Britain’s summer getaway.

Saturday is predicted to be the year’s busiest day for travel after schools in England and Wales broke up for the six-week summer holiday. Abta, the travel association, said more than 2 million UK holidaymakers will head overseas this weekend.

Friday was the busiest day for airline travel in Europe since 2019, with more than 35,000 flights taking off.

Delays were anticipated on Saturday due to the number of travellers and train strikes by the RMT and Aslef unions, that left some parts of the country with no rail service all day.

DFDS, a passenger and freight company, warned that it would take three hours to pass through all border controls and to check in at the Port of Dover. AA said there were long delays on the A20 “due to people and lorries heading into Dover Port”.

Rail services were affected across England as RMT workers continue their strike over pay and conditions. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Delays at Dover are significantly lengthened by post-Brexit passport checks, despite a number of mitigation measures put in place by the port.

The port has worked with coach operators to spread departures over less busy days, but car passengers planning to travel on Saturday and Sunday were advised to arrive up to three hours before their booked departure.

Border rules now mean all passengers’ passports are checked individually. A new system for checks on coach passengers, which was first introduced for the May half-term, will be used again throughout the summer.

Vehicles can move swiftly through the port once border checks are complete, but Dover is limited physically by the town and the cliffs and has only a small holding area for queue arrivals. The port has urged people not to arrive more than the advised three hours in advance, with passengers normally able to catch the next ferry if they miss their booked sailing.

By 3.08pm on Friday, 20,490 passengers had sailed from the Kent port to France.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of passengers are travelling through Heathrow and Gatwick airports over the coming days with travel association Abta saying about 200,000 people will depart from Manchester airport and 71,000 from Bristol.

The poor weather in the UK is due to the position of a jet stream which is also pushing high pressure to the south where parts of Europe are seeing a heatwave.