Spain remains most popular destination for brits

Spain remains the most popular destination for British travellers, according to new figures.

New data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority shows passenger demand at the country’s airports is now just shy of the pre-recession boom years. The latest figures show 238 million passengers passed through UK airports during 2014; an increase of 4.4 per cent (10m) on 2013.

The most popular European destination for flyers is Spain (34.3m), which saw a 4.7 per cent year-on-year increase. Spain has now topped the destination charts for more than 25 years; the CAA’s earliest computer records from 1988 show 14.8m passengers took a flight to Spain that year.

The biggest percentage rise in Europe was seen by Greece, up by 13.2 per cent to 5.6m passengers. However the European country that experienced the largest fall in passengers was Poland, falling by 2 per cent or 0.1m to 5.2m. Outside Europe there was a 2.3 per cent rise in passengers flying to and from North America, now at 21m per year.

Passengers travelling to and from all other international destinations totalled 33.6m, a 3.7 rise from 2013. Of these the largest passenger increase was seen by the UAE, up 430,000 (7.4 per cent) to 6.2m. Australia saw the largest decline is passengers, down by a third from 744,000 to 488,000 in 2014.