Continued Decline in Demand for Air Transport
The number of people taking to the skies from the UK is continuing to decline. Britain’s 33 busiest airports are all reporting lower passenger figures for the first 8 months of this year.
Some of the most popular flight destinations from the UK are the most acutely affected with a 16% fall in passengers travelling to Spain and 10% fewer travelling to the United States from London. Some regional UK airports are more badly affected than others with Prestwick reporting a fall in business of around 25% and Gatwick reporting a drop in passenger figures of around 2 million.
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. This is the fourth consecutive quarter in which surveys have shown a consistent decline in passengers.
It is thought that the decline has been fuelled by the fall in value of sterling along with the recession.Many British holidaymakers have opted to stay at home this year instead of flying to traditional vacation destinations in Spain or America.
Some airlines are making cutbacks as a direct result of the decline in business. 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. 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.
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 the air transport industry it looks like there is some way to go before passenger figures return to the pre-recession highs.
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