Official Statistics

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

Published 24 February 2022

1. Passenger arrivals

This report presents the latest update on experimental statistics relating to passenger arrivals for the period 01 January 2019 to 31 January 2022. The report provides comparisons between the pre- and ongoing COVID-19 period (using 2019 as the baseline for comparisons), and examines 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 has published data on the total number of passenger arrivals to the UK in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. The data published here comes from a different source to the passenger arrivals data in the Immigration Statistics, and is able to provide additional details, but the aggregate numbers presented from different sources may differ.

2. Key findings

Between April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, and January 2022, arrivals to the UK by air have been, on average, around 82% lower than levels seen prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Air travel to the UK has started to increase again since the easing of travel restrictions in June 2021. There were 2,917,600 air passenger arrivals to the UK in the month of January 2022 (from Advance Passenger Information (API) data). This is four and a half times higher (362%) than in January 2021, when there were 631,500 arrivals. However, the number of air arrivals in January 2022 still remains considerably lower than a typical pre-COVID January, and are less than half (41%) of the arrivals in January 2020 (7,082,000).

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

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables

Figure 1 shows that air arrivals increased in the summer of 2021, reaching a high of over one million per week in mid-to-late October 2021, for the first time since the first UK lockdown. There had also been a similar, albeit temporary, recovery in summer 2020.

There were fewer than 200,000 air arrivals per month between April and June 2020, following the start of the first UK lockdown. Around 40% of those arrivals were British citizens, and a significant number of those travelling on a foreign passport will have been resident in the UK. There was a slight increase in the number of arrivals in the summer of 2020, reaching a high of 3.1 million arrivals in August, but this was still 74% lower than the comparable figure for August 2019. After the summer months, the number of air arrivals subsequently decreased again with fewer than 500,000 air arrivals per month in February, March 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.

The increase in air arrivals during the summer of 2021 also 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. Again, there was a slight decrease in the following winter months up to January 2022, typical of seasonal patterns but also when the Omicron variant was detected. As noted, the number of arrivals in the latest months are still lower than comparable periods prior to the pandemic.

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 key 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: Travellers from abroad required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test. International Travel Corridors suspended, meaning all travellers 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 PDT, to test on day 8 or to self-isolate.
13. 07 December 2021: Requirement introduced for all passengers arriving to complete a pre departure test 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 pre departure test or self-isolate on arrival in England.

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

Typically, in pre-COVID months, around half of air passenger arrivals in the UK are 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 those who are visiting or working in the UK.

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

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables

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. The proportion increased to 61% in October 2021, the highest in the data series, which starts from January 2019. This fell to an average of 51% in the following months November 2021 to January 2022.

The increase in arrivals over the summer of 2020, when restrictions were first being lifted and international travel corridors were opened, also corresponds with an increase in the proportion of arrivals from British nationals (as shown in Table 1). The increase in proportion of arrivals who were British nationals may in part reflect the UK lifting travel restrictions earlier than other countries where UK visitors might normally travel from. Arrivals from British nationals were very low (at less than 35% of total arrivals on average) during the first few months of 2021 when restrictions on travel were high.

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

	Air arrivals	% of whom: British nationals	% change in total arrivals compared with same month in 2019, prior to the pandemic
January 2020	7,082,000	41%	+1%
February 20201	6,804,900	51%	-2%
March 2020	3,815,300	58%	-51%
April 2020	112,300	56%	-99%
May 2020	139,300	36%	-99%
June 2020	194,900	34%	-98%
July 2020	1,260,400	49%	-89%
August 2020	3,106,500	57%	-74%
September 2020	2,757,700	53%	-75%
October 2020	1,741,100	53%	-82%
November 2020	690,600	46%	-90%
December 2020	895,000	44%	-88%
January 2021	631,500	32%	-91%
February 2021	319,200	31%	-95%
March 2021	386,600	36%	-95%
April 2021	447,300	34%	-95%
May 2021	527,800	35%	-95%
June 2021	855,800	43%	-92%
July 2021	1,439,800	54%	-87%
August 2021	3,438,700	59%	-71%
September 2021	3,810,700	56%	-65%
October 2021	4,470,000	61%	-54%
November 2021	3,549,100	52%	-50%
December 2021	2,965,600	52%	-59%
January 2022	2,917,600	49%	-59%
April 2020 to January 20222	36,657,500	53%	-82%

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables

Notes

1. In order to ensure the February 2020 comparison with February 2019 compares the same number of days, arrivals on the 29 February 2020 are excluded from the ‘% change with the same month in 2019’ column but are included in the total number of arrivals for that month.
2. Comparisons are with the equivalent months between January and December 2019.
3. Totals in the table may not equal the sum of individual days in the accompanying air passenger arrivals data table due to rounding.

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’. The BITD figures in the report cover the period between April 2019 and January 2021. Due to the ongoing development of new borders systems, data for months since January 2021 are currently unavailable but it is our intention to provide these in future publications.

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 do 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.