Arrivals by air to the UK during the course of the pandemic have been, on average, about 90% lower than pre-Covid levels.
The figures come from the Home Office, which released statistics for the period from April 2020 until July 2021.
There were just over 1.4 million air passenger arrivals to the UK in July 2021, slightly higher than the 1.26 million recorded in July 2020.
“The number of air arrivals in July 2021 remains considerably lower than a typical pre-Covid July at only around one eighth (13%) of the arrivals in July 2019 (11,151,600),” said the Home Office.
Looking back to the first lockdown, figures for April, May and June 2020 show that air arrivals were lower than 200,000 a month.
There was a slight increase in the summer of 2020, reaching a summer high of 3.1 million arrivals in August – still 74% lower than the comparable figure for August 2019.
Air arrivals then fell again with fewer than 500,000 air arrivals per month in February to April 2021.
“This was due to a combination of tightened restrictions towards the end of 2020 and the typical seasonal patterns in arrivals, which are lower in winter months,” said the Home Office.
“The number of arrivals has since increased each month up to July 2021, which is also typical of seasonal patterns of arrivals in summer months.”
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