HALTON holidaymakers will be joining hordes of families jetting off on holiday today.

This weekend sees the start of Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s busiest time of the year following the start of school holidays.

Around 23,000 passengers are expected to depart from the airport this weekend alone with the vast majority heading to the sunshine resorts on the Mediterranean and the airport recommends passengers allow extra time to pass through the airport, arriving two to three hours before departure.

Robin Tudor, head of PR at John Lennon Airport, said: “This time of year is always our busiest and once again the sunshine resorts around the Mediterranean look like being the most popular with the region’s holidaymakers who are choosing to take advantage of our convenient, hassle free environment and the many great value for money direct flights from here.”

Despite the recent warm spell in the UK, the airport has been busier in recent weeks with passengers departing on their annual summer holiday abroad, with low cost airlines easyJet and Ryanair flying passengers to a host of popular holiday destinations.

Spanish resorts including Majorca, Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol are expected to be the most popular with high volumes of passenger traffic also expected to the Greek island of Kos, Tenerife and Bodrum in Turkey.

Around 600,000 passengers are due to pass through the airport over the busy six week summer holiday period with flights operating to 15 of the most popular Mediterranean destinations and to four of the main Canary islands.