Easter travel chaos as air woes combine with rail maintenance and fallout from

Drivers have been brought to a standstill along two major routes in Kent due to delays in Channel crossings.

Under Operation Brock, thousands of lorries heading for the Port of Dover or Eurotunnel have been able to park along a 23-mile stretch of the M20 from junction 8 to junction 11, causing chaos to surrounding roads.

The operation involves using a moveable barrier to create a contraflow system enabling lorries to queue and other traffic to keep moving in both directions. However, it has been overwhelmed, with the area hit by long queues every day since Friday.

The A20 Roundhill Tunnel is also closed under the Dover TAP scheme to prevent HGVs from jumping the queue.

The Port of Dover has urged passengers to “allow plenty of time for their journey” and said it is working “tirelessly to move traffic as effectively as possible.”

“We served 30,000 departing passengers, triple that of the corresponding weekend in 2021,” it said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the commencement of the busy Easter getaway period coincided with the ongoing impact of reduced ferry services and bad weather that affected remaining operators earlier in the week, causing one vessel to be taken out of service for a couple of days. This caused some delays, notably for freight.”

Bad weather has added to the problems with DP World, the owner of sackings scandal firm P&O Ferries, saying it had suspended on-ship operations at its Southampton terminal because of high winds.

Easter breaks face disruption

Those planning an Easter getaway are facing the prospect of a frustrating, and likely more expensive, journey than they were hoping for when holiday plans were made.

In addition to traffic jams, there is disruption for trips to France amid the fallout from the P&O saga, airports are struggling to cope with higher demand and, to cap it all, there are big engineering works planned on the railways.

Here, Sky News takes a look at how each major area for travel is shaping up as the holiday rush gathers speed.

Ferries

The loss of many P&O Ferries services is tipped to have a major impact over the Easter period – with queues of trucks heading towards Dover reported on Thursday morning to stretch for 10 miles along the M20 in Kent, with surrounding routes also clogged.

There has been a gaping hole in capacity, especially for popular cross-Channel services, since P&O found itself in hot water over its decision to make almost 800 seafarers redundant via a video message last month.

That is because some ships with their new crews have failed safety checks while others have been unable to run.

Crucially, an agreement that meant rival DFDS would carry P&O passengers is coming to an end.

From Friday, its regular services to and from Dover or Newhaven to France will be unable to take P&O customers.

DFDS…