The busiest part of the great Easter getaway was beginning today as people take advantage of the three public holidays in 10 days.

Good Friday, Easter Monday, the Royal Wedding and the May Day bank holiday are offering workers the chance to go away for a long holiday without having to eat into their annual leave.

Around 10 million cars are expected on the roads over Easter and Birmingham Airport was preparing for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Around 99 per cent of the road network will also be clear of roadworks to try to keep traffic moving on the motorways.

Roadworks lifted from tonight include the M6 at junction one near Rugby.

However work at junction 14 near Stafford to instal electrical systems will stay in place because of open excavations.

Birmingham Airport today revealed it is expecting to handle more than 409,000 passengers between now and the May Day bank holiday, up 0.2 per cent on the same period last year. More than 110,000 passengers will pass through the airport over the Easter weekend.

Airport spokesman Daniel Scaife said: “Popular destinations include Cyprus, the Canary Islands and the two daily flights to Dubai Airport which has onward connections to the Far East and Australia. People are also booking seats to see friends and relatives in Ireland.”

Rail passengers were being warned of revised timetables from tomorrow on the Lichfield Trent Valley line.

Trains between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton will also run early on Easter Saturday and replacement buses will be used between Birmingham and Wolverhampton on Easter Sunday because of engineering work.

The Midland Metro will operate as normal.

Buses will run Saturday timetables on most routes on Good Friday and a Sunday service Easter Monday.