Passengers at UK airports have more than doubled since 1991, according to the Office for National Statistics report ‘How we travel’.
Its ‘UK perspective – How we travel’ article claims the volume of passengers at UK airports rose from 95 million in 1991 to just under 230 million in 2013.
Compared to 58 million passengers in 1980, air passenger numbers in 2013 were almost four times greater.
There were 72 million passengers at Heathrow airport in 2013, an increase of two million from 2012 and accounting for 32% of the total passengers at all UK airports.
This was more than twice as many as Gatwick, the second largest UK airport – at 35 million.
Air traffic did however fall during the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009 as well as in 2010, coinciding with volcanic ash and severe winter weather disruption.
Passenger numbers increased by 3.5% in 2013, although they remain 5% below the peak of 240 million in 2007.
