Bank holiday bonanza as 15m plan a break

More than 15m Brits plan to go on holiday in June to make the most of the extra-long Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

The late May bank holiday has been moved to Monday 4 June, while an additional Jubilee bank holiday will take place on Tuesday 5 June.

The extra bank holiday will mean that those who book the ‘golden three days’ on 6, 7 and 8 June will be able to have nine days off work. 

Research from Stansted Airport found that 15m plan to get away and of those who have already booked time off, more than 3m are planning to go abroad.

On Sunday 3 June, up to 1,000 boats will muster on the River Thames ready for Her Majesty The Queen to lead the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

A concert organised by the BBC will be held at Buckingham Palace on Monday 4 June and thousands of beacons will be lit around the world on the same day.

Last year, the extra bank holiday for the Royal Wedding saw more than 10m create an extended break around the added days off.
 
Meanwhile, Ryanair will add 26 new routes from Luton and Stansted for summer 2012.

It said the new routes would help ‘besieged Londoners to escape the July/August Olympics’ and deliver more than 1.5m additional passengers a year, via over 260 extra weekly flights.

They are Alghero, Barcelona Girona, Barcelona Reus, Murcia and Trapani from Luton, and Almeria, Barcelona Girona, Barcelona Reus, Berlin, Budapest, Corfu, Crete Chania, Ibiza, Jerez, Kos, Malta, Paphos, Patras Araxos, Perpignan, Pula, Rhodes, Rijeka, Toulon, Turku, Warsaw and Zadar from Stansted.

According to the airline, Londoners are not allowing the Games to disrupt their summer holidays, with its advance bookings for the Olympic fortnight (27 July-12 Aug) up 28% year-on-year.

See other Jubilee/bank holiday news:
Jubilee honour for Voyages Jules Verne founder (28/02/2012)
Bank holidays boost domestic trips (01/08/2011)
GDP figures show extra bank holiday impact (26/07/2011)
Diamond Jubilee programme announced (02/06/2011)
Cunard promises ‘unforgettable Jubilee’ (07/03/2011)
Bank holiday boon sees Monarch add seats in April (21/01/2011)

And other Ryanair news:
Ryanair blames BAA for Edinburgh axe (21/02/2012)
Luton operator unconvinced by owner’s plan (15/02/2012)
January traffic down for Ryanair and easyJet (06/02/2012)
Ryanair back in the black (30/01/2012)
Ryanair adds five new services to Budapest (25/01/2012)