Easter travel – live: Storm Nelson brings bank holiday chaos as planes can’t land and flooding cancels trains
Millions of Britons hitting the roads and jetting abroad for the Easter bank holiday are facing major travel disruption as Storm Nelson left planes unable to land, trains cancelled and major delays for ferry passengers.
Around 2.6 million car journeys are expected to be made on Good Friday, while two million British holidaymakers are set to fly abroad. However, plans have been dashed as strong winds from the Spanish-named storm hit the start of the wet long weekend, and hundreds of flood warnings and alerts are in place across the UK.
Ferry company DFDS reported that its services in Kent were running with delays “due to strong winds in the Channel” on Thursday as the Easter getaway got underway. Major queues were seen on Friday morning as the Port of Dover was reporting delays of well over an hour.
Meanwhile, passengers heading for the UK’s fourth-busiest airport, London Stansted, have been warned by Network Rail not to travel from London Liverpool Street after a falling tree brought down overhead wires, raising fears flights will be missed.
And dramatic footage showed an easyJet flight wobble on the runway before aborting a landing at Gatwick Airport on Thursday. It did manage to successfully land 10 minutes later.
