RAC is predicting a ‘hat-trick of hold-ups’ as around 2.7m trips are planned on Thursday 18, Good Friday 19 and Saturday 20 April.

This year’s Easter bank holiday weekend could be the busiest since 2022 – the first full getaway after COVID lockdowns – with more than 19m leisure journeys planned, according to a new study of drivers’ getaway plans by the RAC and traffic analytics specialists INRIX.

Research suggests traffic will be equally severe on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with drivers planning around 2.7m trips every day during that period. The number of trips planned drops slightly on Easter Sunday to 2.5m, before increasing again to a further 2.7m on bank holiday Monday as millions of people return home – ahead of most school terms beginning the next day.

A further 6.2m journeys are anticipated at some point over the Easter bank holiday weekend, but drivers planning these trips are still unsure exactly when they’ll travel – with the notorious British weather likely to be a big factor.

INRIX expect Thursday 17 to be the worst day for traffic when jams are likely to increase by nearly a third (30%) more than usual. On this day, INRIX are predicting delays of more than an hour on the 35-mile clockwise stretch of the M25 between J7 for Gatwick Airport and J16 for the M40 to the West Midlands, around 11:45am. The M6 north of Chester and M25 clockwise towards Godstone in Surrey could also see long delays in the evening.

Meanwhile, on Good Friday, the lengthiest hold-ups are expected between 11am to 1pm, meaning drivers are advised to start their trips as early as possible in the morning or delay them until later in the afternoon. Two popular routes to the West Country – the A303 westbound to Stonehenge and the M5 southbound between J15 at the RAC tower north of Bristol and J23 for Bridgwater – could be affected by some of the longest jams, with journey times extending to 43 minutes and one hour 20 minutes respectively – more than half as long as usual.

For those returning from the West Country on Easter Monday 21 April, delays of nearly an hour (58 minutes) are expected around 2:30pm on the M5 northbound between J25 for Taunton and J16 at the RAC tower. Elsewhere, the M25 anticlockwise between J4 from Bromley and the Dartford Crossing will be hit with queues at lunchtime, with journeys taking over half an hour longer than normal.

(Pic: Yay Images)