The first weekend in June was a feverish time at British airports. With the announcement by Boris Johnson's government that Portugal had been placed on the 'amber' list, thousands of British passengers rushed home. In order to avoid a mandatory 10-day quarantine...
Apart from this temporary fever in British airport arrivals halls, air traffic across the Channel is likely to remain sluggish this summer. While the countries of the European Union are finally opening up to Covid-negative passengers, thehe United Kingdom is not part of this euphoria about travelling the continent.
Last year was a black year for British air transport. Total passenger numbers reached 73.76 million.. This is a lower volume of traffic than London Heathrow airport alone. In 2019, it will be handling almost 81 million passengers.
Traffic has fallen by 75% in one year according to the Airport Operators Association (AOA). It reflects the devastating effect of the pandemic. The airports hardest hit last year in the UK were Cardiff down 86.7%, followed by Glasgow Prestwick (-85.8%), Exeter (-85.5%), Southampton (-83.4%) and Leeds Bradford (-81.2%).
London airports held up slightly better. Heathrow airport traffic down 72.7% year-on-year to reach 22.1 million passengers in 2020. Luton more resilient with a decrease of 69.5% as well as Stansted with 73.2%. The airports of Gatwick and London City on the other hand, were the hardest hit. The former lost 78.2% of its passengers, or 10.17 million passengers (instead of 46.6 million in 2019). The latter handled fewer than one million passengers, compared with 5.1 million, a fall of 82.3%.
All in all, the British capital will have handled 46.28 million passengers - a market share of almost 63% of all UK passengers. At 2019, London had welcomed in its airports 178.9 million passengers…
"Global Britain" remains a dream for air transport
The major regional airports were no better off. Manchester down 76% with 7.03 million passengers 29.37 million in 2019. Edinburgh 3.47 million compared with 14.73 million a year earlier and Birmingham 2.86 million compared with 12.64 million in 2019.
But where airports were still hoping for a return to favour in 2021, thehe extension of the final intermediate containment stage announced by Boris Johnson on 14 June and the handful of countries considered safe for travel (green list) are a cold shower.
a summer as bad, if not worse, than 2020
According to Karen Dee, Chief Executive of the AOA, the government's "overly cautious" approach to reopening travel means that this summer would be "as bad, if not worse, than 2020".. According to its estimates, UK airports will lose at least £2.6 billion in revenue this summer, following a similar loss between April and September 2020.
" As a result, British airports will continue to lag behind their international competitors in the European Union, who have not only received much greater financial support from their governments, but are also in a position to boost travel during the summer.she told The Guardian newspaper.
"Global Britainthe government's slogan for the UK's return to the international stage, is still struggling to materialise. And not just in air transport...
