UK airport passenger numbers at highest level since 2008
UK airports have seen the strongest start to a year since before the global economic crisis.
UK terminals handled 50.2 million passengers between January and March 2015, the highest first quarter figures since the same period in 2008.
Just before the global financial crisis hit passenger numbers reached 51.4 million.
The first three months of 2015 also recorded a 7.5% growth in passenger numbers, the largest growth of any quarter in the last 10 years.
The Civil Aviation Authority said the growth was primarily in European traffic (9%) and domestic traffic (7%).
The strong start to the year has also helped UK airports record the best rolling 12 month passenger number total since records began.
"The large increase in first quarter passenger numbers has led to UK airports recording their busiest ever 12 months and means that for the first time air travel has exceeded the levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis," said CAA policy director Tim Johnson.
"Figures also show commercial flight numbers are growing much faster at London airports than elsewhere which highlights the pressures both on runway capacity and airspace in the South East. The increasing levels of air travel highlights the importance of addressing these two issues.
"Without changes both to infrastructure on the ground and in the air, consumers will face higher charges, less choice and more disruption."
But the CAA figures also show that while passenger numbers are rising, flight punctuality is falling.
Punctuality at London airports dropped from 84% in Q1 2014 to 80% in Q1 2015.
At regional airports, on-time flight performance dropped from 86% to 81%.
Overall on-time performance at all UK airports dropped from 85% to 80%.
The average delay of scheduled passenger flights in Q1 2015 increased at all airports, except for Jersey and Bournemouth where average delays fell by two minutes and one minute respectively.
Average delays at all London airports increased by two minutes from 10 to 12 minutes.
Regional airports increased from nine minutes to 11 minutes.
For all UK airports average delay increased by two minutes from nine minutes to 11
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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