THOUSANDS of holidaymakers will descend on Scotland's busiest airports this weekend as the summer getaway begins.
With a number of schools closing for the summer holiday yesterday [Thu] and the remainder finishing up from today, Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports are braced for their busiest weekend of the year.
More than 163,000 passengers are expected to travel through the Glasgow Airport this weekend, with people from all over Scotland jetting off to the sun.
The majority of travellers will be heading to popular sunshine hotspots such as Dubai, Florida, the Canary Islands, Portugal and Turkey. Other popular city break destinations include Budapest, Rome and Prague.
The airport is drafting in extra staff at peak times to cope with demand from passengers who need special assistance and to guide people through check-in and security.
There will also be providing extra entertainment for departing travellers, including a kids zone in the departures area with crafts and face painting for families travelling with young children.
Francois Bourienne, commercial director of Glasgow Airport, said: "Given that the airport will be busier than usual we would encourage passengers to allow enough time for check-in and to ensure they are prepared for the security area. All liquids, gels and pastes carried in hand luggage should be 100ml or less and carried in a 20cm x 20cm clear plastic bag which should be presented out with their hand luggage at the security check point."
Meanwhile, Edinburgh Airport is preparing to handle 116,000 outbound passengers alone between yesterday and Monday, with 24,725 passengers departing from the capital today[Fri].
It comes days after the airport's new security hall was blighted by an IT glitch on Monday that caused huge queues and led to some passengers missing flights.
A spokesman for the airport said engineers were continuing to monitor the problem but there had been no issues with the system since Monday and the security hall was operating normally.
In total, Edinburgh Airport expects to handle more than 208,000 passengers over the weekend, combining arriving and departing passengers.
The most popular destinations from the capital include Amsterdam, Dublin, Mallorca, Madrid, Copenhagen, New York, Alicante, Malaga, Frankfurt and Geneva.
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