Four million Brits will head abroad this Christmas

As many as four million Britons will head overseas this Christmas, with those staying behind facing jammed roads and disrupted rail journeys.

Estimated by travel association Abta, the four million figure covers the period from Friday 19 December to Saturday 3 January and is slightly higher than the number going away for Christmas last year.

Heathrow is handling 16,700 departures this Friday, with nearly 700,000 passengers leaving from the west London airport between December 19 and Christmas Day. Words: PA

Abta said that between December 19 and January 3 Gatwick airport would be handling 800,000 departures and Stansted 430,000. In addition around 380,000 will leave from Manchester and 160,000 from Birmingham.

Hundreds of thousands of people will also travel across the English Channel by ferry or through the Channel Tunnel, with 250,000 heading off on the high-speed trains of Eurostar.

Abta said top winter sun destinations for Britons included the Canary Islands, Tunisia and Morocco, while top long-haul destinations included Dubai, Mexico, Cuba and Egypt.

Popular for New Year's Eve breaks are the cities of Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Dublin, while domestically Edinburgh and London lead the way.

In the period December 12 to January 5 British Airways will be carrying around 2.7 million passengers, with this Friday its busiest day, with 129,000 customers flying.

The BA schedules include 267 flights on Christmas Day on which 37,000 turkey dinners will be served.

Top BA destinations over the festive period are Dubai, Barbados, New York, Australia and Barcelona.

Ryanair is carrying more than 3.5 million customers between Saturday December 20 and January 6 - an increase of 500,000 customers over the 2013/14 holiday period.

Popular destinations include the Portuguese Algarve, the Canary Islands, Cologne and Prague.

Those travelling within Britain will have to contend with disruption caused by a £200 million engineering programme over the holiday period.

Although a lot of the work, being carried out by an army of 11,000 rail engineers, is being done on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, there will be major disruption on the West Coast main line due to work at Watford in Hertfordshire and between Stafford and Crewe.

The West Coast line will be shut between Euston station in London and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire after the last trains on Christmas Eve until Monday December 29.

It will also be closed between Stafford and Crewe after the last trains on Christmas Eve until Sunday 28 December.

Also, work at Reading in Berkshire will mean restricted services in and out of Paddington station in London right through to January 5.

This Saturday sees the start of a 16-day part-closure of London Bridge station for work involving the £6.5 billion Thameslink programme.

From December 20 to Sunday January 4, Southern and Thameslink trains will not call at London Bridge and cross-London Thameslink Bedford-Brighton trains will not return until 2018.

Also, from next Monday until Christmas Eve some Southeastern Charing Cross services will not call at London Bridge in the morning peak.

The other piece of work that will extend beyond Boxing Day is at a spot just outside King's Cross in London. This will restrict services on Saturday December 27 and Sunday December 28.

Michael Roberts, director general of the Rail Delivery Group which represents operators and Network Rail, said fewer than 3% of services would be on replacement buses this Christmas, and that a number of operators - including Chiltern, Southeastern and ScotRail - will be running services on Boxing Day.

Mr Roberts said: "Rail staff will be working around the clock through the Christmas break to lay new track, renew signals, repair bridges and build new platforms, to deliver more and better services for Britain."

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: "We are acutely conscious that many people want to use the railway during the festive season to reunite with their friends and families.

"The vast majority of the network will be running normally over the holiday period with only small sections impacted by our work."

He went on: "I recognise and apologise for the fact that some of our essential improvement work will disrupt people's travel plans.

"I know that passengers can be frustrated by disruption but people appreciate that carrying out this work at a time when the railway is less busy reduces overall disruption."

The Highways Agency will be suspending some of the roadworks on England's motorways and major A roads over the holiday period but some will stay in place for safety reasons.

Traffic information company Inrix is forecasting this Friday, Tuesday December 23 and Saturday December 27 to be the busiest days on the roads, with as many as 20 million cars on the roads on Friday.

Inrix said the longest delays were likely to be on the M1, the M6 and the M25.

Inrix traffic analyst Greg Hallsworth said: "Drivers would be well advised to steer clear of driving this Friday afternoon as this will be the busiest period on the roads this Christmas.

"There will be significant delays between 12pm and 6pm caused by a combination of the usual Friday evening post-work peak, the start of English school holidays and people driving home for Christmas."

National Express has announced record demand for its coaches this Christmas, with Saturday December 27 the most popular day to travel.

Gatwick Airport will handle more than 1.7 million passengers from tomorrow until January 5.

Around 58,000 passengers will depart from the West Sussex airport tomorrow, 60,000 on Saturday and 64,000 on Sunday - Gatwick's single busiest departure day over the festive period.

There will be more than 15,000 passengers passing through Gatwick on Christmas Day, while Sunday January 4 will see 66,000 flying in - the busiest day for arrivals.

Geneva, Barcelona and Dublin top the Gatwick Christmas destinations list.

Eurostar will carry more than 480,000 passengers between tomorrow and January 4 - a 5% rise on the last festive period.

David Sidebottom, of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "Investment in maintenance and improvement is necessary, and we passengers understand that.

"But, for passengers wanting to travel over the Christmas period, engineering works can be a major inconvenience, especially if it means having to use rail replacement bus services.

"Our research is clear: passengers want to be kept on the train wherever possible, they want to know before buying a ticket if part of the journey will be by bus, and they want plenty of staff on hand to signpost where to go and what to do."

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