ABTA, The Travel Association estimates that 1.9 million Brits will escape the summer washout at home by heading away over the Bank Holiday weekend (24-27 August).
Friday and Saturday will be the busiest days with almost 1 million flying from the South East alone. Over 400,000 will be leaving from Heathrow, 260,000 from Gatwick, 160,000 from Stansted and 90,000 from Luton.
Meanwhile nearly 400,000 will leave through regional airports including 160,000 from Manchester,12,000 from Southampton, 65,000 from Birmingham and 40,000 from Nottingham East Midlands.
In addition 70,000 will use Eurostar for trips to France, and Belgium. A further 400,000 people will be heading for the continent by ferry or Eurotunnel.
Mediterranean resorts in the Balearic and Canary Islands, mainland Spain, and the Greek islands remain the summer holiday favourites, while Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey follow closely behind.
City breaks have sold very well and old favourites New York, Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome lead the way.
Justin Fleming ABTA President said: The August Bank holiday is our traditional farewell to the summer and after three months of rain it is no surprise that thousands of us are heading abroad to catch some sun and relax.
ABTA was founded in 1950 and currently has 1,600 members with 6,300 outlets. Members include travel agents, tour operators and support services right across the spectrum from small family-owned businesses to the largest tour operators.
ABTA is the largest travel association in the UK and its members provide 90% of the foreign package holidays in the UK as well as selling millions of independent travel arrangements.
As part of its comprehensive package of services to members, ABTA, as a non-party political organisation, also provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its Members to government and key opinion formers at the highest levels. In the UK, these include, government ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members, senior civil servants and members of the political opposition parties in both Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In Europe, ABTA is forming close ties with members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and staff within the Director Generals Secretariats. ABTA works in partnership with ECTAA (the European grouping of travel agents and tour operators associations) to lobby on interests relevant to its Members.
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