Charter flight passengers ‘lowest in 20 years’

Friday, 19 Apr, 2006 0

The proportion of passengers taking charter flights from the UK in 2005 was the lowest in 20 years, according to the latest figures from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Only 13.4% of overall passengers flew on UK charter carriers, or about 34.9 million – a decrease of two million compared to 2004.

A spokesman for the CAA said this was down to a combination of factors, including the demise of the traditional package holiday, the growth of low-cost airlines, and the rise in the number of charter airlines that are now operating scheduled flights.

“You’ve got carriers like Monarch, for example, running scheduled services from Gatwick,” he said.

In contrast, the proportion of passengers at UK airports flying on UK scheduled airlines reached 50.5% in 2005, its highest level for the last 20 years and an increase of 7.3 million passengers on 2004.

The latest figures also showed a considerable rise in the use of regional airports, particularly Liverpool, up by 32% or 1.1 million passengers, and Bristol, up by 13% or 0.6 million passengers.

Over the last 10 years terminal passenger numbers at regional airports have doubled from 47 million in 1995 to 95 million in 2005.

“Again, this is largely down to the growth of the low-cost airlines,” said the spokesman.

Overall, UK airports handled 229 million passengers in 2005, an increase of over 6% on 2004.

“This is not necessarily suggesting that more people are flying, but that more people are flying more frequently,” said the CAA spokesman.

Phil Davies

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