Air passenger numbers down 98%

AIR passenger numbers dropped by 98 per cent at the height the pandemic last year, official figures show.

Monthly arrivals to the UK fell from 6.8 million last February to 112,300 in April, data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals.

The figures have been released as part of an analysis of how industries related to travel and tourism in the UK have been affected by the pandemic.

EuroTunnel also saw a sharp drop in traffic during the first lockdown. In April 2020, only 19,862 passenger vehicles travelled, compared with 227,393 in April 2019, a fall of 91.3 per cent.

After the partial relaxation of restrictions in both the UK and France, passenger traffic rose to a peak of 267,942 in August, a decline of 28.2 per cent from the same month in 2019.

The ONS said in comparison with air passenger traffic, this was a proportionately stronger recovery.

The data also reveals Greater London saw the largest tumble in hotel room occupancy of any English region from 2019 to 2020, with just 20 per cent of rooms occupied in July last year, against 90 per cent the previous July.

Accommodation and travel agency businesses saw the sharpest decline in turnover during the first national lockdown.

Decline

It fell to 9.3 per cent of their February levels in May 2020.

In the three months to June 2020, employment in accommodation for visitors fell by 21.5 per cent compared with the same three months of 2019.

In travel and tourism industries overall, people aged 16 to 24 saw the largest plunge in employment of any age group between July to September in 2019 and the same period in 2020.

The ONS said: “Even as restrictions eased over the summer of 2020, the percentage of the workforce on furlough leave in most travel and tourism industries was higher than in other industries, before increasing again in November in response to further lockdown measures.”