More than two million people are due to head overseas for summer holidays this weekend, Abta estimates.
Today (Friday) expected to be the busiest day of the weekend.
Airports in the southeast are expecting a very busy weekend with hundreds of thousands of passengers expected to depart from Heathrow and Gatwick, 200,000 from Stansted and 116,000 from Luton.
A projected 210,000 passengers are due to depart from Manchester airport, 75,000 from Bristol and many will still be leaving from Scottish airports this weekend although Scottish schools are well into their summer break.
Other regional airports, ports and the Channel Tunnel will also be extremely busy over the weekend, according to the travel association.
Spain remains the top destination for families, in particular the Costa del Sol, the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Strong demand is also being reported by Abta members for Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Italy, Malta and Cyprus. Florida and Dubai are popular log-haul choices.
Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona and Lisbon leading the way for city breaks.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “Thousands of families will be jetting off this weekend as the majority of schools in the UK start their summer break.
“After months of cloud and rain families will be particularly keen to enjoy the warmth and sunshine of their favourite overseas holiday destinations.
“As always at busy times of year, leave plenty of time to get to the air or ferry port and arrive at the time recommended by your airline or departure port.
“We’re also encouraging travellers to take the time to check the essentials are sorted for their holiday, including travel insurance.”
Jet2.com and Jet2holidays operator will operate almost 1,000 flights over the weekend and fly more than 175,000 holidaymakers as part of their biggest summer programme to date, taking people to and from more than 50 destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and Canary Islands.
The three most popular destinations this summer are Majorca, Tenerife and Faro.