Press Association
Sunday 12th February 2012
A big dip in holiday airline traffic meant UK airports handled 7.4% fewer passengers last year than in 2008 - the largest annual decline since records began 65 years ago, it has been announced.
The years 2008 and 2009 represented the first time that passenger numbers have fallen for two successive years, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.
The 216.8 million passenger total for 2009 meant annual figures fell to their lowest level since 2004.
Charter airline numbers fell 17% in 2009 compared with 2008, while UK domestic flight traffic was down 8% and scheduled airline traffic fell 6%.
Much of the overall passenger decrease came in the first part of last year, with numbers down 12.5% in the January-March 2009 period. The decline in the last three months of last year was only 3.8% compared with October-December 2008.
The decline at the five London airports - Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City - was 4.9% overall, with the largest declines in percentage terms at London City (14.2% down), Stansted (10.7% down) and Luton (10.4% down).
Heathrow had the smallest decline among London airports, handling 66 million passengers in 2009 - only 1.5% fewer than in 2008.
Gatwick handled 32 million passengers - a 5.3% fall on 2008.
At the regional airports - those other than the London airports - traffic last year fell 10.7% to 88 million passengers. Manchester, the largest regional airport, saw passenger numbers plunge by 11.5% to 2.4 million, while at Birmingham airport they dropped by 5% to 483,000.
During 2009, air transport movements (landings and take-offs of commercial aircraft) at UK airports fell by 8.8% to 2.1 million, which is also the largest annual drop since the 1940s.
