UK outbound passenger habits revealed

The CAA’s latest Passenger Survey Report has revealed details about travellers from eight UK airports. More than 200,000 interviews took place during 2007 at the big four London airports, as well as Manchester, Humberside, Liverpool and Doncaster Sheffield. The eight airports handled 29 million passengers during the year, equivalent to 12% of UK total. The Purpose…

The CAA‘s latest Passenger Survey Report has revealed details about travellers from eight UK airports.

More than 200,000 interviews took place during 2007 at the big four London airports, as well as Manchester, Humberside, Liverpool and Doncaster Sheffield.

The eight airports handled 29 million passengers during the year, equivalent to 12% of UK total.

The Purpose of Journey tables offer the best distribution-related insight, with leisure passengers offered the chance to say if they were paying their holiday fare separately or travelling as part of an inclusive tour.

The CAA told Travolution that the former was “some sort of proxy” for the proportion of seat-only leisure passengers departing from a particular airport.

Surprisingly perhaps, the airports with the highest proportion of UK-based leisure passengers “paying their holiday fare separately” are Liverpool and Doncaster Sheffield, with 46.9% and 38.8% respectively.

Luton, Stansted and Gatwick have 32.9%, 31.6% and 24.9%, despite the number of low cost carriers using them as hubs.

The questionnaire made a distinction between the above and Brits who were visiting friends and relatives.

The VFR sector is usually seat-only, and for this category Stansted came out top with 43.3%. Liverpool has a strong presence here as well, with a further 28%.

Stansted had the lowest proportion of UK residents flying on out on packages at 5%; Humberside had the highest at 59%.

Doncaster Sheffield attracted the largest proportion of leisure passengers at 94%. Heathrow is the most popular with corporate travellers.

The CAA’s summary runs to more than 100 pages of tables.

Headline findings range from the airport with the highest percentage of people travelling alone – Heathrow with 66% – to the airport with the lowest percentage of people arriving by public transport – Humberside with 1%.

Download the CAA report.