UK holidaymakers face repeat of last weekend's travel chaos for Easter

DFDS, Irish Ferries and P&O are amending some bookings to prevent a repeat of last weekend's long delays

Coaches wait to enter the Port of Dover in Kent on April 2. PA

UK ferry operators are asking coach providers to amend some Good Friday bookings from the Port of Dover, leaving thousands of holidaymakers facing Easter travel disruption.

The situation is the result of its “urgent review” after “horrible” delays last weekend, the Kent port said.

Good Friday is expected to be the busiest day of the Easter holiday weekend for coaches embarking on cross-Channel trips from the port.

The port said that, to “reduce coach volumes” on that day, ferry operators DFDS, Irish Ferries and P&O are “working with their coach customers to spread the travel” across the three days from Thursday to Saturday.

The port said more temporary border control points had been added to process coach passengers.

French border control authorities are providing more officials to process travellers, despite coach numbers expected to be a third lower than a week ago, and drivers are being advised not to arrive early to “avoid unnecessary bottlenecks”.

“All Port of Dover stakeholders are acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers, including the elderly and schoolchildren," the port said.

“It is the top priority of all parties to ensure a better experience for travellers this weekend.

“These additional measures are intended to significantly improve traffic throughput and give travellers a better start to their holidays.”

Vehicles wait in the check-in lanes at the Port of Dover in Kent on April 3, after a weekend of backlogs left passengers stuck in Easter traffic for hours. PA

Graham Vidler, chief executive of coach operators' association the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said: “We are pleased the Port of Dover have listened to our calls to bring in more frontier staff, but we still need ferry operators to improve their passenger advance information and for the port to introduce more coach priority measures.

“While the traffic this weekend through the port will be smoothed out with no limits on vehicles, coach operators will work with the ferry companies to adjust sailing times where that is possible.

“We hope the measures put in place at Dover will improve things for all road users and we will be watching the situation carefully to ensure continental coach travel through Dover can continue to thrive.”

DFDS issued an alert on Twitter, which said: “We are expecting a busy weekend with the Easter getaway through the port.

“Please allow 120 minutes to complete border controls and check-in.”

“We are expecting a busy weekend, possibly just as busy as last weekend."

Delays at the port have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports after Brexit.

Downing Street acknowledged that “new processes” introduced after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU contributed to last weekend’s disruption.

“Of course Brexit has had an impact," Labour leader Keir Starmer said.

It is not clear whether another strike by French workers on Thursday in the continuing row over pension reforms will affect ferry passengers.

In response to one passenger on Twitter, P&O Ferries wrote: “We’re planning to sail to our regular schedule at the moment, but we’re still advising for passengers to prepare for a wait just in case.”