UK residents flying out of Gatwick and Stansted took shorter holidays in 2008 compared with 2007, and the average income of UK air passengers fell, the CAA’s2008 Air Passenger Survey has found.
The average length of trip for UK residents on international scheduled leisure holidays dropped by one day at both Gatwick and Stansted between 2007 and 2008, to nine and seven days respectively.
The average length of a trip at Heathrow was 14 days, followed by Manchester at 12 days and Cardiff at 10 days. For passengers flying from Bristol, Exeter, London City and Stansted, the average was seven days.
At almost every airport surveyed, for both business and leisure travel, average passenger income had fallen, except for leisure passengers at Luton and Manchester where small increases were recorded.
The most pronounced decline was found among leisure passengers at Stansted and business passengers at Heathrow. Their average household income fell by more than £4,000 and £4,700 a year respectively.
The survey also found that Heathrow had 1.2 million fewer business passengers in 2008 compared with 2007, while both Luton and Stansted enjoyed around 1% more business passengers.
London City was the only airport surveyed where business passengers were in the majority (56%).
In terms of leisure travel, Bristol attracted the largest proportion at 86%, Cardiff had 85%, Gatwick 83%, and at both Luton and Stansted, leisure travellers accounted for 81% of passengers.
The CAA questioned over 200,000 air passengers departing from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter and Manchester.