Regional airports show 9% growth

The proportion of travellers using UK regional airports continues to grow strongly, with numbers up 9% last year to 95 million.

This represented 43% of all air passengers, with the remaining 132 million using one of the main four London airports, a rise of 4% over 2004.

Around 30% of the UK’s passengers travelled from Heathrow, followed by 14% at Gatwick, 10% at Manchester, 10% at Stansted and four per cent each at Luton, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The findings come from a Civil Aviation Authority 2005 air passenger survey, which questioned 200,000 people at 14 UK airports about their travel habits. The CAA interviewed passengers at the four airports surveyed in and around London as well as at Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Durham Tees Valley, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds-Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle and Prestwick.

Dublin was the most popular destination for leisure passengers at the four London airports, followed by New York (JFK), Edinburgh, Malaga and Amsterdam. Edinburgh was the most popular route for business passengers from the London airports, followed by Amsterdam, Glasgow, Dublin and Paris (Charles de Gaulle).

Across the regional airports surveyed, Alicante, Palma and Tenerife were the most popular international destinations for leisure passengers and the most popular long haul points were Orlando (Sanford), New York (Newark) and Dubai. Business travel on scheduled routes from the surveyed regional airports was dominated by travel to London, where 69% of passengers completed their journey. The remaining 31% connected to an onward flight.

Across all the airports surveyed, around 43% of UK passengers had made more than three return trips in the preceding 12-month period. At Luton and Stansted this figure was 50%, 42% at Gatwick and 39% at Heathrow. Inverness had the highest percentage of frequent travellers, with 73% flying at least three times in the preceding 12 months, whilst Prestwick had the lowest figure at 25%. 

Business passengers accounted for over 56% of all passengers using Aberdeen, the highest proportion in the survey. This compared with 36% at Inverness, 35% at Heathrow and 30% at Glasgow.

UK business passengers using Heathrow had the highest average incomes at £79,000, compared with £67,000 at Gatwick and Luton airports and £57,000 at Stansted. In Scotland, average business incomes were lower, at £53,000 in Edinburgh and £50,000 at Aberdeen.

Bournemouth Airport attracted the largest proportion of leisure passengers at just over 95%, compared with 94% at Prestwick, 83% at Gatwick and 80% at Manchester.

The household income of UK leisure passengers at Gatwick was around £52,000 per annum, slightly more than their counterparts at Stansted (£51,000) and Luton (£50,000) but considerably more than passengers using Manchester (£39,000), Bournemouth (£37,000) and Prestwick (£41,000).

The proportion of passengers changing aircraft was significantly smaller at the regional airports surveyed with the exception of Aberdeen, where 10% of travellers connected with oilrigs or the Scottish Isles. This compared with around 35% at Heathrow, 17% at Gatwick, 12% at Stansted, seven per cent at Luton and three per cent at Manchester.

The most popular method of transport to many of the surveyed airports was by car, used by 78% of passengers at Bournemouth, 58% at Manchester, and the lowest, 33%, at Heathrow. The capital had the highest proportion of public transport users at 36%, up from the 34% recorded in 2004. The lowest public transport usage was at Leeds-Bradford at six per cent.

The survey will be used to help airlines, airport operators and the Government to determine future passenger needs.

Report by Phil Davies