Passenger Traffic Increased at UK Airports in 2007

UK airports handled 241 million passengers during 2007, according to figures published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). This represents an increase of 2.4 percent on 2006. This growth is slower than that seen over the last decade and continues a trend which began in 2005.

During 2007, air transport movements (landings and takeoffs of commercial aircraft) at UK airports grew by 1.8 percent to 2.5 million.

The London airports comprised 58 percent of total UK passenger numbers, compared to 58.2 percent in 2006. They saw an increase of 2.8 million terminal passengers, or 2.0 percent more than in 2006.

The biggest growth in passenger numbers at the London airports was at Gatwick, which served a million more passengers in 2007 than in 2006. Heathrow, Luton and London City all handled over half a million more passengers each.

London City saw its fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage growth: it is now handling over 2 percent of all London passengers.

Of the UK airport passengers in 2007, the majority (139.0 million) were bound for, or arriving from, geographical Europe –representing an increase of 3.1 percent from 2006.

Within this, the largest absolute increases were in passengers to and from: Poland (up by 1.0 million, an increase of 30.7 percent); Italy (up by 0.6 million, an increase of 6.0 percent); and Spain (up by 0.6 million, an increase of 1.8 percent).

The largest fall for an individual European country was Ireland, where passenger numbers fell by 0.1 million (a decrease of 0.8 percent) - this contrasts with high growth in 2006, when Ireland showed a 4.8 percent increase on 2005.

There were 22.4 million passengers on flights to and from North America, an increase from 21.7 million in 2006, and a reversal of the decline in passengers to and from North America seen in 2006.

In 2007, 25.3 million passengers were on domestic flights . This represents a fall of 1.9 percent on 2006, and is the only market segment where passenger numbers are not increasing.

Passengers traveling to and from the remaining international destinations (outside of Europe and North America) totaled 30.6 million in 2007, an increase of 5.5 percent on 2006. The Middle East and Australasia were the regions seeing the largest growth in passenger numbers (0.6 million and 0.2 million respectively).

Both of these represent increases of more than 10 percent since 2006. Between them, these two regions account for nearly a quarter of the passengers between the UK and the non-EU countries excluding North America.