Airports busy as school ends and the holiday travel chaos kicks in

Busy scenes at Auckland Airport international departures as holidaymakers check in. Photo / Supplied

Eager holidaymakers are best to give themselves a bit more time to escape city or country as roads and airports deal with increased numbers.

School holiday chaos kicked off today at Auckland Airport as travellers made their escape from the wet weather in droves.

A spokeswoman for Auckland Airport urged people to give themselves a little more time to check in over the next few days.

"It is all driven by school holidays and yes, it is a lot busier than usual," she said.

"It will be like this for a few days."

And despite the busy queues at check-in the winter holidays numbers are nowhere near the numbers for the Christmas holidays when an average of 37,500 passengers used the international terminal.