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.
It is some of the most popular routes from the UK that are the most seriously affected with as much as a 16% fall in passengers travelling to Spain and a drop of one in ten travelling to the United States from London. 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%.
There has been a fall of aroung 15% in business travellers during the first quarter of 2009 according to the Guild of Travel Management Companies. Surveys are indicating that this is the fourth consecutive quarter in which demand for air transport from the UK has decreased.
The fall in demand for air transport is thought to be partly due to the recession and partly due to the decline in the value of the pound.There are many British holidaymakers who have chosen to spend their vacations closer to home this year rather than fly to Spain or America.
Some airlines are making cutbacks as a direct result of the decline in business. Budget airline BMIBaby has announced that it will shrink in size by as much as one third during 2010 with cuts in routes from Cardiff, Birmigham and Manchester. And last week British Airways announced that they had suffered unprecedented summer losses and these will result in a reduction in the number of flight attendants on each flight from Heathrow from November 16th.
While there have been reports that some are seeing what are described as the green shoots of recovery suggesting that the recession is coming to an end. 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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