Passengers Choosing Not to Fly

The number of people taking to the skies from the UK is continuing to decline. All of the UK’s most popular and busy airports have reported further declines in passenger figures for the first 8 months of this year.

Many of the most popular destinations from the UK are the worst affected with a fall of 1 in 10 passengers to the United States and a drop of 1 in 6 passengers travelling from London to New York. Certain UK airports have been more badly affected by the downturn in air travel with Gatwick airport reporting a loss of 2 million passengers and traffic at Prestwick airport down by 25%.

The Guild of Travel Management Companies has reported that the number of business travelers taking flights was down by 15% in the third quarter of 2009. Surveys are indicating that this is the fourth consecutive quarter in which demand for air transport from the UK has decreased.

The continued decrease in demand for air transport is generally thought to be due to the recession along with the falling value of sterling against other currencies.There are many British holidaymakers who have chosen to spend their vacations closer to home this year rather than fly to Spain or America.

There are some airlines making cutbacks due to this persistent decline in demand. BMIBaby have announced that they will be making cuts in routes from Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester as a result of the continued downturn in business. Only last week British Airways announced that they would be reducing the number of cabin crew on flights from Heathrow from November the 16th due to the unprecedented losses suffered during the peak summer months.

It has been reported that we are through the worst of the recession and that there is now evidence of the green shoots of recovery. Unfortunately for airports and airlines it looks like there is a long way to go before passenger figures recover to their pre-recession levels.

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