Port of Dover Easter travel delays warning sparks fear of chaos at border

Easter getaway weekend could see further travel chaos at the border after warning of Port of Dover delays.
Neil Lancefield6 April 2023

Holidaymakers have been warned they could face two-hour delays at the Port of Dover this Easter getaway weekend.

On Thursday night, ferry operator DFDS urged holidaymakers to “allow 120 minutes to complete border controls and check-in” at the Kent port over the busy bank holiday weekend.

It comes after chaotic scenes at the port last weekend when thousands of people were delayed, reportedly by up to 14 hours.

At one point on Thursday, there were queues of “approximately 90 minutes” for passport checks by French officials at the port as the Easter rush kicked off amid “high volumes of traffic”, DFDS said.

Delays at Dover have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit.

Port officials said they held an “urgent review” with ferry operators and the French authorities in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s delays.

Ferry companies are asking coach operators booked on sailings on Good Friday – expected to be the busiest day for outbound Easter travel from Dover – to “spread the travel” across the three-day period from Thursday to Saturday.

A general strike in France in a row over pension reforms is also causing disruption.

About 400,000 people joined a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms in Paris on Thursday, the French CGT union reportedly said.

Mr Macron’s bid to raise the national retirement age from 62 to 64 has sparked days of unrest, with reports of police firing tear gas and some protesters starting fires in Paris on Thursday.

Many flights to, from and over France have been grounded due to air traffic controllers joining the walkout.

British Airways axed at least 20 flights which would have used French airspace on Thursday.

Eurostar cancelled a train in both directions between London and Paris.

Protesters also blocked a road to terminal one of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Flights were unaffected but many passengers were forced to walk to and from the terminal.

Meanwhile, UK drivers have been warned to expect long delays on popular routes over the coming days.

The RAC is predicting that up to 17 million leisure trips by car will take place between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

An estimated two million British holidaymakers are set to travel overseas during the long weekend, according to travel trade organisation Abta, which reported strong demand for trips to mainland Spain, the Canary and Balearic Islands, the Algarve, Madeira, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Greece and southern Turkey.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in