This Christmas could be the busiest on the roads for five years as drivers plan an estimated 27 million trips between today and Christmas Eve.

An average of 4.1 million such journeys are expected to take place every day next week, culminating in ‘Frantic Festive Friday’ on Christmas Eve

With many schools in England and Wales breaking up today, a study by the RAC and Inrix suggests there will be an extended getaway in the run up to Christmas, with an average of 4.1 million such journeys taking place every day next week.

Christmas Eve – dubbed ‘Frantic Festive Friday’ by the RAC – will see the most leisure journeys by car; some 5.3 million.

Thursday 23 December is expected to be the next busiest, with around 4.1 million leisure trips taken – and the RAC is advising drivers to set off early or postpone their trips until after dark to avoid the worst of the traffic.

And over the Christmas break itself, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the Monday bank holiday could all turn out to be busier than normal for leisure trips this year – with around 4.5 million journeys a day by car taken to see friends and family, compared to the average of around 3.5m for the same period since 2015.

The data indicates that with no Covid travel restrictions currently in place, drivers are keen to make the most of the Christmas and New Year period to see friends and family.

But one in 10 drivers (10%) don’t plan on travelling by car at all over Christmas because of the pandemic, and both the RAC and Inrix believe there is likely to be less pre-Christmas congestion than in a ‘typical’ non-Covid year, thanks to the ‘work from home’ guidance leading to far fewer commuters on the roads.

Meanwhile, National Highways has committed to keeping almost 98% of the road network it manages free from roadworks.

However, festive delays are still expected on the clockwise M60 near Manchester, the southbound M40 in Oxfordshire and the northern and western sections of the M25.

And the single worst queue before Christmas is expected on the M25 between Gatwick and the junction for the M40 on Thursday afternoon.

RAC Breakdown spokesperson Rod Dennis said: “We’re expecting the biggest Christmas getaway for five years, including a ‘Frantic Festive Friday’ on Christmas Eve. But with overall traffic volumes in the run-up to the big day set to be down slightly on normal given the current ‘work from home’ guidance, there’s reason to hope there won’t be too many queues as millions get away to see friends and family.”

He added: “Our figures this year also point to more drivers using the roads between Christmas Day and New Year for leisure trips than normal – perhaps to make up for the fact that last Christmas was such a write-off for so many people.”