More than 2 million Brits to travel overseas this Easter

Abta has predicted more than two million Brits will travel overseas this Easter.

Spain has dominated the choice of destinations for the exodus from April 1-6, with the Canary Islands, and Tenerife in particular, dominating the list of preferred destinations.

Egypt remains strong thanks largely to Sharm el-Sheikh, while Tunisia and Turkey are both selling well. In the long-haul market, Florida and the Dominican Republic are proving popular.

City breaks are also selling well with Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Milan and New York all in the overseas top five, while London Edinburgh and Manchester are dominating the domestic market.

The number of passengers departing from UK airports is predicted to break down to:

• 575,000 from Heathrow


• 250,000 from Gatwick


• 175,000 from Stansted


• 60,000 from Luton


• 141,000 from Manchester


• 60,000 from Birmingham

About 155,000 Scots are also expected to catch a flight for the Easter break:

• 58,000 from Glasgow


• 75,000 from Edinburgh


• 23,000 from Aberdeen.

A further 85,000 passengers are expected to travel on Eurostar.

Abta chairman John McEwan said: “Easter is the traditional curtain-raiser to the summer and I am delighted to see that hundreds of thousands of our customers are taking the opportunity to take a well-earned break both here in the UK and overseas.”

• Hotel comparison site Trivago reported that Dubai was its second most popular search in the run-up to the Easter break