Official Statistics

Statistics relating to passenger arrivals in the United Kingdom since the COVID-19 outbreak, August 2022

Published 25 August 2022

1. Passenger arrivals

This report presents the latest update on experimental statistics relating to passenger arrivals for the period 01 January 2019 to 30 June 2022. The report covers the period preceding and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as more recent periods. It focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on numbers of air passenger arrivals in the UK. More information on the data sources can be found in the ‘about the data’ section below.

The Home Office previously published data on passenger arrivals to the UK in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. The data published here comes from a different source which is able to provide additional details, but the aggregate numbers presented from different sources may differ.

2. Key findings

Air passenger arrivals to the UK have been increasing since January 2022. April to June 2022 saw 23,466,100 arrivals, 21% fewer than the same period in 2019 prior to the pandemic, but almost 13 times higher than the same period a year earlier in the midst of the pandemic. In the two-year period between April 2020 and March 2022, air passenger arrivals to the UK were, on average, four fifths (79%) lower than levels seen in the year prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Air travel to the UK started to recover in 2022, returning to close to pre-pandemic levels. It reached a two-year high in June 2022 (8,366,800 arrivals), although this was still 22% fewer arrivals than in June 2019 (10,770,400).

Figure 1: Rolling weekly air passenger arrivals to the UK, Jan 2019 – Jun 2022

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables

Notes

1. Data for 1st – 24th May 2022 are estimated using extrapolation. More information can be found in the ‘about the data’ section below.
2. The dashed line denotes data points that contain at least one day where the number of arrivals has been estimated.

Figure 1 shows how air arrivals fell sharply at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, falling from 7.1 million in January 2020 to 112,300 in April 2020 following the start of the first UK lockdown. This was only around 1% of the number of arrivals by air in April 2019. Air travel continued to remain very low between April and June 2020, at fewer than 200,000 air arrivals per month. Around 40% of those arrivals were British citizens, and a proportion of those travelling on a foreign passport will have also been resident in the UK.

There was a slight increase in the number of arrivals in the summer of 2020, reaching 3.1 million arrivals in August 2020, still 74% lower than the same month in 2019. After the summer months, the number of air arrivals decreased with fewer than 500,000 air arrivals per month between February and April 2021. This was due to a combination of tightened restrictions towards the end of 2020 and the typical seasonal patterns in arrivals, which are lower in winter months.

Air arrivals increased again from the summer of 2021, reaching a monthly high that year of 4.5 million in October 2021 (although this was still 54% lower than in October 2019, prior to the pandemic). The increase in air arrivals during the summer of 2021 followed the removal of the travel ban from red list countries in June 2021, and self-isolation rules from amber list countries in July 2021. There was a slight decrease in the following winter months with 2.9 million arrivals in January 2022 as typical seasonal patterns coincided with the detection of the Omicron variant.

All remaining travel restrictions (testing and Passenger Locator Forms) were phased out in the first few months of 2022, and air travel to the UK has since increased, although remains below pre-pandemic levels. It reached a two-year high of 8,366,800 in the month of June 2022, just 22% below the figure for June 2019 (10,770,400).

Below is a list of key dates that are likely to have had an impact on passenger arrivals to the UK, either through restrictions on travel, or requirements in place for those who do travel. Some of these dates are shown in Figure 2.

1. 23 March 2020: First UK lockdown announced.
2. 08 June 2020: Health measures introduced at the border. This relates to a series of measures that were designed to prevent new cases of Covid-19 being brought in from abroad.
3. 10 July 2020: International Travel Corridors introduced. Passengers arriving from specific countries advised that they will not need to self-isolate when arriving in England.
4. 05 November 2020: Second national lockdown in England starts.
5. 05 January 2021: Third national lockdown in England starts.
6. 18 January 2021: Travelers from abroad required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test. International Travel Corridors suspended, meaning all travelers from outside the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man need to self-isolate for 10 days after arriving in the UK.
7. 15 February 2021: Introduction of Managed Quarantine, which requires arrivals to England from “red list” countries, from British or Irish nationals or residents of the UK, to book an isolation package at a government approved facility. Non-British or Irish nationals and non-UK residents from red list countries were not allowed to enter the UK at all.
8. 17 May 2021: Traffic Light system introduced, with the inclusion of amber and green lists for countries.
9. 08 June 2021: Removal of travel ban from red list countries and introduction of dedicated red list terminals.
10. 08 July 2021: Passengers who are fully vaccinated after receiving the NHS administered vaccine no longer need to self-isolate upon arrival from an amber list country.
11. 02 August 2021: Passengers who have been fully vaccinated with vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in amber European countries (EU member states) and EU Free Trade Association countries and by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA can travel to the UK without self-isolation and day 8 testing. France was included on 8th August.
12. 04 October 2021: New travel system comes into force with countries and territories categorised as either red or rest of the world. The changes placed a greater emphasis upon a traveler’s vaccination status to determine requirements under health measures. Fully vaccinated passengers no longer required to complete a Pre-Departure Test (PDT), to test on day 8 or to self-isolate.
13. 07 December 2021: Requirement introduced for all passengers arriving to complete a PDT before travelling to the UK following the identification of the Omicron variant.
14. 07 January 2022: Fully vaccinated passengers are no longer required to take a PDT or self-isolate on arrival in England.
15. 11 February 2022: All testing requirements were removed for eligible fully vaccinated arrivals. Arrivals who were not recognised as fully vaccinated only needed to take a pre-departure test and a PCR test on or before day 2 after they arrive in the UK. The Passenger Locator Form (PLF) remained a requirement for all arrivals.
16. 18 March 2022: All remaining border health measures requirements (testing and PLF) removed for all arrivals irrespective of vaccination status.

Where dates relate to periods of lockdown, the date shown is for England, but similar changes were occurring at similar times in the other parts of the UK. Additional factors affecting the number of travelers will include the individual restrictions imposed by each of the devolved administrations, travel bans to or from the UK and other countries, and changes made to testing requirements and availability.

Typically, in pre-COVID months, around half of air passenger arrivals in the UK were British nationals (although this can fluctuate from month to month). The other arrivals will include foreign nationals who are UK residents returning to the UK, non-British dependants of UK residents, and other non-British nationals including some who are visiting or working in the UK.

Figure 2: Weekly air passenger arrivals to the UK, by nationality, Jan 2020 – Jun 2022

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables

Notes

1. Data used for 1st – 24th May 2022 are estimated using extrapolation. Breakdowns by British and non-British are not available for this period. The period is shown in the light purple bars. More information can be found in the ‘about the data’ section below.

Figure 2 shows an increase in the proportion of arrivals who are British nationals from June 2021, following the easing of restrictions on international travel, to 61% in October 2021, the joint highest in the series which began in January 2019.

Table 1: Passengers arriving to the UK by air, compared with the same quarter in 2019

	Air arrivals	% of whom: British nationals	% change in total arrivals compared with same quarter in 2019, prior to the pandemic
Q1 2020	17,702,200	48%	-18%
Q2 2020	446,500	40%	-95%
Q3 2020	7,124,600	54%	-79%
Q4 2020	3,326,700	49%	-86%
Q1 2021	1,337,300	33%	-94%
Q2 2021	1,830,900	38%	-81%
Q3 2021	8,689,200	57%	-74%
Q4 2021	10,984,700	56%	-54%
Q1 2022	11,685,800	54%	-46%
Q2 20223	23,466,100	59%	-21%

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables

Notes

1. Comparisons are with the equivalent quarters in 2019.
2. Totals in the table may not equal the sum of individual days in the accompanying air passenger arrivals data table due to rounding.
3. Data used for 1st – 24th May 2022 are estimated using extrapolation. The breakdown by British nationals is based on arrivals in April and June 2022. More information can be found in the ‘about the data’ section below.

Additional data drawn from Border and Immigration Transactions data (BITD) can be used to illustrate arrivals through the air, sea and rail routes – although numbers of transactions will not accurately reflect the total number of individuals arriving due to the way in which the transaction systems operate at the border.

Passengers arriving by air accounted for 87% of all passenger arrivals (across all routes) to the UK in the year ending March 2020, which was typical of the pre-pandemic period. Following the first UK lockdown, this proportion fell to 38% by May 2020, as air arrivals fell more sharply than rail and sea arrivals. The proportion recovered in the following months but still remained lower than the pre-pandemic period. Between April 2020 to January 2021, air arrivals were 89% lower than the equivalent pre-COVID period, sea arrivals were 71% lower and rail arrivals were 75% lower.

The latest information on arrivals across all routes can be found in the publication: ‘Statistics relating to passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 outbreak May 2021’.

3. About the data

Data on passenger arrivals are derived from live operational systems; Advance Passenger Information (API), and Border and Immigration Transaction Data (BITD). These data are designed for operational use rather than statistical purposes, and there are some known issues in producing estimates of arrivals from these sources.

API data primarily relate to passengers coming to the UK via commercial aviation routes. The data does not include those arriving by sea or rail routes, by private aircraft or via the Common Travel Area (CTA). As for a lot of data that is derived from live operational systems, figures for more recent periods may also be subject to revision.

BITD data relate to those coming to the UK on air, sea, and rail routes, but does not include those coming via the CTA. As the system was not designed for statistical purposes, the data should be considered indicative. Some passengers will be counted multiple times in the data where more than one interaction has occurred. Data from the year ending March 2020 is the earliest available for reporting purposes. The impact of COVID-19 will affect March 2020 data to some degree.

Data from the API on the number of passengers arriving by air are published in the accompanying air passenger arrivals data tables.

Data on air passenger arrivals for 1st – 24th May 2022 was not available due to a technical issue with the source system. The numbers for this period have been estimated using extrapolation. They were calculated by using the average change in arrivals from April to May and May to June for years 2017, 2018 and 2019 – the most recent years unaffected by the pandemic – and then applying this change to 2022.

The average change from April to May was 4%, and the average change from May to June was 12%. These changes were applied to the current year, and the estimate figure was taken as the average of the two figures.

Figures for individual days, or for British and non-British nationals have not been provided. However, for figure 1 and 2 above, the total estimate arrivals for the month have been equally distributed between the days for which data were missing.