Airline passengers may not be fully aware of all the options available to get to the airport, a new report suggests.
The latest passenger survey report by the Civil Aviation Authority shows that “significantly more people” departing from London’s five airports took public transport, while those flying from regional airports were much more likely to use private transport.
A total of 238 million passengers used UK airports last year but how travellers chose to reach their departure point varied considerably.
Passengers departing from London were more likely to use multiple forms of transport to get to an airport compared with their regional counterparts, according to the regulator’s report.
It found that London airports have the highest proportion of passengers travelling by public transport with Stansted the highest (50%) followed by London City (46%), with Luton the lowest (29%).*
Of the regional airports, Birmingham had the highest proportion of passengers using public transport (23%) and East Midlands had the lowest (7.4%).
East Midlands airport had the highest proportion of passengers using a single mode of transport to get to the airport (97%), followed by Leeds Bradford (95%) and Doncaster (93%).
By contrast London City had the lowest proportion of passengers using one form of transport (66%) and the highest proportion taking two modes of transport (28%).
These latest figures have been taken from just two of the questions posed to 232,000 departing travellers who took part in the CAA’s 2014 passenger survey.
The study, which took place at 11 airports, also found London City has the highest proportion of passengers travelling for business (52%), with the next highest being Heathrow (30%).
Airports with the highest proportion of leisure passengers were Doncaster (97%) followed by East Midlands (93%), Leeds Bradford and Liverpool (both 90%).
Travellers from Heathrow took the highest proportion of trips lasting more than two weeks (22%), with London City lowest (4%). Outside the capital, Manchester had the most (14%).
Heathrow had the highest proportion (35%) of connecting passengers, followed by Gatwick with 7%. All the other airports surveyed had less than 5% connecting passengers, with East Midlands, Leeds Bradford and Doncaster Sheffield all having less than 1%.
Heathrow was the only airport where the majority of passengers were foreign residents (60%). Next largest was London City (45%) while East Midlands had the smallest number (11%).
CAA policy director, Tim Johnson, said: “Our annual survey shines a light on passengers’ use of UK airports, providing valuable insights for airports, airlines, passengers and policy makers alike.
“The latest passenger survey points to a marked difference in the way passengers travel to airports, with a much higher proportion using public transport to get to the five airports in London compared to airports elsewhere in the UK.
“This raises the question whether each of the airports has the optimum balance of public and private transport options, and whether passengers are aware of all their options for getting to the airports.”
The 11 airports involved in the 2014 survey were: Birmingham, Doncaster, East Midlands, Gatwick, Heathrow, Leeds Bradford, London City, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted.