Millions of motorists are expected to take to UK roads as the peak summer holiday season begins, with fears of lengthy queues at the Port of Dover as new EU border controls face their busiest test so far.
Concerns over delays linked to the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), combined with recent heatwaves and uncertainty over flights following the Iran conflict, have helped drive demand for UK staycations to their highest levels since the Covid pandemic.
Motoring organisations expect Friday to mark the start of the busiest summer weekend for domestic leisure travel, while Dover is preparing for significant congestion as thousands of holidaymakers head to Britain’s busiest Channel ferry port.
From 6am, French border officers stationed at Dover will manually register non-EU travellers under the new EES rules. However, the £40 million automated processing facility designed to speed up border checks remains out of service because of software issues in France.
Although French border police will not collect biometric data such as fingerprints and photographs this summer, the port has warned that manually creating records for every non-EU visitor could still lead to lengthy delays.
Around 7,500 cars are expected to travel through Dover on Friday, rising to approximately 10,000 on Saturday as schools across England and Wales break up for the summer holidays.
Port officials have urged travellers to stick to main routes when approaching Dover and arrive no more than two hours before their scheduled ferry departure.
Eurotunnel, which operates LeShuttle through the Channel Tunnel, said it does not expect significant disruption despite also postponing the use of its automated EES processing kiosks. Like Dover, biometric registration will not be introduced there this summer.
Away from the Channel crossings, the RAC and traffic analysts Inrix expect severe congestion on Friday, particularly around the M25 and connecting routes to the M3, as more than 14 million drivers head away for the weekend.
With most schools closing for the summer, Saturday is expected to be the busiest day for domestic leisure travel, making it the UK’s largest staycation getaway since 2022.
RAC spokesperson Harriet Hernando said: “The great British summer staycation is about to get off to a flying start, with many opting to stay in the UK instead of travelling abroad. This could be down to people having more confidence in the weather, as well as concerns over cancelled flights, higher air fares and EU border delays, which are no fun with a family in tow.”
She also warned that the June heatwave had caused a rise in vehicle breakdowns, adding: “People should prepare for delays and getting stuck in a jam in potentially very hot weather.”
The AA said around one in five motorists plans to make a leisure journey of at least 100 miles over the coming week, making it the busiest period of the summer for road travel, with many expected to head to the coast if hot weather continues.
London Heathrow Airport also expects the start of its busiest summer travel period this weekend, with Friday forecast to be its busiest day. Travel association Abta expects overseas holiday departures to peak next weekend.
Passengers travelling to the 29-country Schengen area will complete EES formalities on arrival and departure at their destination airports.
Meanwhile, Ryanair warned that UK passengers could become “the testing ground for unfinished border infrastructure” and urged travellers to prepare for possible lengthy queues. The airline identified Lisbon, Tenerife South, Alicante, Malaga and Milan Bergamo among the airports most likely to experience EES-related delays.