United Kingdom - Air transport, passengers carried

The value for Air transport, passengers carried in United Kingdom was 30,967,520 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 50 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 165,388,600 in 2018 and a minimum value of 15,568,800 in 1970.

Definition: Air passengers carried include both domestic and international aircraft passengers of air carriers registered in the country.

Source: International Civil Aviation Organization, Civil Aviation Statistics of the World and ICAO staff estimates.

See also:

Year Value
1970 15,568,800
1971 15,796,000
1972 17,308,500
1973 18,959,700
1974 18,062,600
1975 18,074,900
1976 19,472,900
1977 19,484,500
1978 23,186,100
1979 25,312,100
1980 25,551,200
1981 24,578,700
1982 23,872,500
1983 23,376,200
1984 25,825,700
1985 28,229,400
1986 29,373,100
1987 33,705,300
1988 37,573,100
1989 46,354,400
1990 47,113,600
1991 42,861,200
1992 47,819,400
1993 50,187,900
1994 55,475,500
1995 59,688,800
1996 64,208,500
1997 62,763,200
1998 61,940,200
1999 65,738,300
2000 70,436,030
2001 70,331,730
2002 72,381,200
2003 76,388,660
2004 86,054,760
2005 93,602,880
2006 97,544,630
2007 101,622,800
2008 104,713,600
2009 102,464,500
2010 101,515,700
2011 111,598,500
2012 115,419,900
2013 118,605,900
2014 124,901,700
2015 131,513,000
2016 143,781,700
2017 151,159,100
2018 165,388,600
2019 142,392,500
2020 30,967,520

Development Relevance: Transport infrastructure - highways, railways, ports and waterways, and airports and air traffic control systems - and the services that flow from it are crucial to the activities of households, producers, and governments. Because performance indicators vary widely by transport mode and focus (whether physical infrastructure or the services flowing from that infrastructure), highly specialized and carefully specified indicators are required to measure a country's transport infrastructure. The air transport industry a vital engine of global socio-economic growth. It is of vital importance for economic development, creating direct and indirect employment, supporting tourism and local businesses, and stimulating foreign investment and international trade. Economic growth, technological change, market liberalization, the growth of low cost carriers, airport congestion, oil prices and other trends affect commercial aviation throughout the world.

Limitations and Exceptions: The air transport data represent the total (international and domestic) scheduled traffic carried by the air carriers registered in a country. Countries submit air transport data to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the basis of standard instructions and definitions issued by ICAO. In many cases, however, the data include estimates by ICAO for nonreporting carriers. Where possible, these estimates are based on previous submissions supplemented by information published by the air carriers, such as flight schedules. The data cover the air traffic carried on scheduled services, but changes in air transport regulations in Europe have made it more difficult to classify traffic as scheduled or nonscheduled. Thus recent increases shown for some European countries may be due to changes in the classification of air traffic rather than actual growth. In the case of multinational air carriers owned by partner States, traffic within each partner State is shown separately as domestic and all other traffic as international. "Foreign" cabotage traffic (i.e. traffic carried between city-pairs in a State other than the one where the reporting carrier has its principal place of business) is shown as international traffic. A technical stop does not result in any flight stage being classified differently than would have been the case had the technical stop not been made. For countries with few air carriers or only one, the addition or discontinuation of a home-based air carrier may cause significant changes in air traffic. Data for transport sectors are not always internationally comparable. Unlike for demographic statistics, national income accounts, and international trade data, the collection of infrastructure data has not been "internationalized."

Statistical Concept and Methodology: For statistical uses, departures are equal to the number of landings made or flight stages flown. A flight stage is the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. A flight stage is classified as either international or domestic. International flight stage is one or both terminals in the territory of a State, other than the State in which the air carrier has its principal place of business. Domestic flight stage is not classifiable as international. Domestic flight stages include all flight stages flown between points within the domestic boundaries of a State by an air carrier whose principal place of business is in that State. Flight stages between a State and territories belonging to it, as well as any flight stages between two such territories, should be classified as domestic. This applies even though a stage may cross international waters or over the territory of another State. The number of passengers carried is obtained by counting each passenger on a particular flight (with one flight number) once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight, with a single exception that a passenger flying on both the international and domestic stages of the same flight should be counted as both a domestic and an international passenger.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Transportation