ABTA

Friday and Saturday will be the busiest days with almost one million flying from the South East alone. Over 420,000 will be leaving from Heathrow, 260,000 from Gatwick, 160,000 from Stansted and 80,000 from Luton.

Meanwhile hundreds of thousands will leave through regional airports including 160,000 from Manchester, 12,000 from Southampton, 70,000 from Birmingham and 50,000 from Nottingham East Midlands. In Scotland 140,000 will be flying out from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

In addition 85,000 will use the Eurostar for trips to the continent. A further 400,000 people will be heading abroad by ferry or Eurotunnel.

Mediterranean resorts in the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, and the Greek islands remain the summer holiday favourites, while Turkey, Cyprus and Portugal follow closely behind.

City breaks have sold very well and old favourites New York, Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome lead the way.

Justin Fleming ABTA President said: “The August bank holiday is our traditional goodbye to the summer and is always very busy. This year is no exception with large numbers escaping to guaranteed sunshine, sandy beaches and warm seas.”