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May bank holiday rush overseas down this year
Around 100,000 fewer people will be heading overseas on holiday over the bank holiday weekend.
ABTA estimates that 1.8 million British holidaymakers are set to leave the country this holiday weekend, which also coincides with school half term.
This compares with 1.9 million over the same May Bank holiday last year.
Spain remains the top destination with the Canary and Balearic islands leading the way. Turkey and Egypt have seen big increases benefiting from being outside of the eurozone, ABTA said.
Florida will be busy as families take advantage of lower prices in May for a week’s break.
The top five city destinations are Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Rome and New York.
High numbers will be flying out of the South East with 385,000 from Heathrow, 220,000 Gatwick, 120,000 from Stansted and 60,000 from Luton.
From the North and the Midlands, more than 130,000 will leave from Manchester airport and 65,000 from Birmingham.
It will be a busy weekend for all the Scottish airports, with tens of thousands due to fly away including, 45,000 from Glasgow, and 55,000 from Edinburgh.
Other regional airports and ferry terminals will also be busy and 80,000 will be heading under the channel on Eurostar.
Outgoing ABTA president Justin Fleming said: “In spite of the recession passenger numbers this bank holiday weekend are very healthy showing that the British love affair with foreign travel is as strong as ever.”
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