Upsurge in festive travellers

Check-in staff are dealing with more passengers than ever before

Northern Ireland's airports and ferries are reporting an upsurge in travel over the festive period.

Thousands of people are either flying off to the sun or returning home for Christmas.

At Belfast's City Airport, check-in staff are dealing with more passengers than ever before this Christmas.

Brian Ambrose, the airport's communications director, said they were 5% up on 2002 - which had been a record year.

He said that on Tuesday they had 13 rotations to Heathrow when normally they would only have nine, with many students returning home.

"We are looking at 100,000 over the holiday period, it will peak at about 8-9,000 a day," he said.

Paul Grant, head of marketing for ferry company Stena line, said business was booming in both directions.

"We will be carrying about 80,000 passengers over the Christmas and New Year period," he said.

Alan Touser of the Association of British Travel Agents said every year more people were heading off to spend Christmas abroad.

"With the introduction of all the low cost carriers and the expansions of their networks and also the desire by people from Northern Ireland to go to place further afield, the market is growing," he said.

"The number of people that are travelling is increasing and the affordability of travel is well within more people's grasp."