18 October 2010
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published results from the 2009 Air Passenger Survey, which questioned over 200,000 departing air passengers about their travel patterns at Aberdeen, Durham Tees Valley, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, Inverness, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Prestwick and Stansted airports.
Following on from falls in passenger income between 2007 and 2008 at most airports, in 2009 a rise in average incomes for business and leisure passengers at Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton, and for leisure passengers at Manchester and Stansted, was reported. However, these increases are mainly due to the depreciation of sterling against foreign currencies, which increased the spending powers for non-UK passengers. Rising average incomes for UK residents associated with lower passenger numbers indicates a lower proportion of low-income passengers now flying.
The 2009 survey saw for the first time a limited sample of respondents at Stansted and Glasgow airports asked about their views on the environment. The survey found that in total 60% of participants stated that they understood the concept of carbon offsetting, but only 6% had actually offset the flight they were taking. 11% of respondents said that over the year they had consciously chosen to travel by air less to reduce their environmental impact. The CAA is undertaking further research in the area of customer attitudes to the environmental impacts of flying.
http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=14&pagetype=65&appid=7&mode=detail&nid=1928