List of Easter bank holiday 2025 travel disruption on road, rail and flights (2025)

Millions of people are facing travel disruption on roads, railways and flights across the Easter Bank Holiday this weekend.

More than 300 engineering projects will be carried out by Network Rail across Britain between Good Friday and Easter Monday, with train journeys from major stations including London Euston and London Victoria being affected.

On the roads, the RAC has predicted there will be more than 19 million journeys taking place from Thursday through to Easter Monday and have warned of widespread congestion on key routes including the M25, M6 and M5.

Meanwhile some baggage handlers, check-in staff and flight dispatchers at Gatwick Airport are on strike over a dispute involving pay and pensions.

Here is a list of all the travel disruption taking place this weekend.

Flight disruptions this Easter weekend

More than 100 members of Unite the Union are on strike today and until Tuesday at London’s Gatwick Airport, meaning passengers could face delays.

Those flying with Norwegian, Air Mauritius, Delta, TAP,Ethiopian Airlines and Air Peace airlines could face ‘major disruption’ after staff working for the ground handling firm Red Handling voted to go on strike, the union said.

Last-minute attempts to reach a deal yesterday failed, however Nick Williams, head of passenger operations at Gatwick, told the BBC they don’t believe there is a ‘ big-scale impact’ as just a handful of airlines are on strike.

‘We’re working really closely with those airlines to try and mitigate that impact and hope that as many of those flights operate as close to schedule as possible,’ he said.

‘We’d advise passengers to check their airline of the weekend.’

This morning, said it was expecting ‘minimal disruption’ to its flights from London Gatwick on Friday and its handling teams located at other major European cities including Dublin, Oslo and Copenhagen would be ‘on the ground’ at Gatwick over the weekend to support their operation.

Flights affected by the strike action which have been delayed from Gatwick Airport this morning are as follows:

• 8.45am Norwegian flight to Bergan – departed at 9am
• 9.20am Norwegian flight to Riga – departed at 9.44am
• 9.20am Norwegian flight to Oslo – departed at 9.37am
• 9.50am Norwegian flight to Helsinki – departed at 10.09am
• 10am Norwegian flight to Copenhagen – departed at 10.05am

Metro has not seen anymore flights delayed this morning. We encourage you to keep track of London Gatwick’s flight status page for further updates.

London Stansted, London Heathrow, London Southend and London City are not affected by the strike action. However there are some delays and cancellations today. Here are they are in full so far:

London Stansted

• 9.40am Ryanair flight to Nantes – departed at 11.45am
• 11.50am Ajet flight to Istanbul – departing at 12.05pm
• 12.05am Ryanair flight to Milan – departing at 12.20pm

We encourage you to keep track of London Stansted’s flight status page for further updates.

London Heathrow

• 10.45am British Airways flight to San Francisco – cancelled
• 12.40pm Air Canada flight to Halifax – cancelled
• 4.40pm British Airways flight to Pittsburgh – delayed

We encourage you to keep track of London Heathrow’s flight status page for further updates.

To keep on top of updates at London City Airport and London Southend, Metro encourages you to visit their flight status pages here and here.

Road disruptions this weekend

On the roads, the AA estimates nearly 20 million people will travel by car on Good Friday alone, with just under that number expected to make journeys on the remaining days of the weekend.

National Highways has lifted roadworks from more than 1,100 miles of motorway and major A roads, with 97.5% of its network now free of traffic cones.

A crash on the M1 in Hertfordshire has meanwhile led to delays of up to an hour and five miles of congestion, National Highways said.

Two of four lanes were closed on the motorway northbound between junction 8 at Hemel Hempstead and junction 9 at Redbourn, with police, the fire service and ambulance service all at the scene.

Traffic hotspots are expected on the M6 in Birmingham and near Blackpool, the south and western M25, the M5 at Bristol and the A303 in Wiltshire.

RAC spokesperson Alice Simpson warned of the potential for ‘big jams’, particularly if there is a break in the weather.

She said: ‘It’s vital to plan ahead and be prepared for trips to take longer because of the wet weather and the expected getaway congestion.’

You can use the AA route planner to keep on top of traffic issues this weekend. The travel alerts page on National Highways is also useful for any major updates.

Train travel disruption over Easter weekend

If you haven’t booked your tickets already, passengers are advised to travel on either side of Easter to avoid the Euston disruption as Euston is closed between Saturday, April 19 and Monday, April 21 due to work to renew overhead electric lines and improve drainage.

You can read more about the Euston station temporary closure here.

A reduced timetable will operate on Good Friday and Monday, and services on the West Coast Main Line will begin and end at Carlisle from Saturday to Monday, with replacement buses covering northern stations.

Trains will also be disrupted between Manchester and Stockport, Cambridge, Southampton and the Leeds and Huddersfield area.

Platforms 1 to 8 at London Victoria will be shut throughout the bank holiday, with Southeastern trains diverted to London Bridge or London Cannon Street. Routes around Southampton and Brockenhurst will also be hit by closures.

For London Underground travel issues, you can read our story here.

In Scotland, track renewal works mean buses replace trains between Carlisle and Glasgow and Carlisle and Edinburgh.

Helen Hamlin, Network Rail’s director of system operations, said: ‘The vast majority of the rail network will be open as usual for people wanting to travel over the Easter bank holiday, but there will be changes to services in some areas so we’re asking passengers to plan ahead and check before they travel.’

She added that Easter presented a key opportunity to carry out works because passenger numbers are lower and the double bank holiday allows more time for upgrades.

The company said £86 million will be invested in the rail network over the weekend.

This article has been updated and was originally published on April 14 2025.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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