With an extra-long weekend for the Jubilee, and half-term for thousands of kids across the UK, many families are taking advantage and setting off on their first foreign holiday for two years. And the great escape will continue through the year, as research by American Express shows that this summer is set to be a bumper year for travel, with £40bn expected to be spent (up from £4.9bn last year).
But is the country ready? Not if the emerging scenes of bedlam in the biggest airports in Britain continues, as pictures of long queues at airports, people sleeping on floors, and hundreds of cancelled flights circulate across social media. I spoke to Hilary Osborne, the Guardian’s money and consumer editor, about why this is happening – and whether anything will improve in time for summer. If you’ve got a holiday booked, you may want to keep reading. First though, the headlines.
