LONDON – Using data from RadarBox.com, are any airports in the United Kingdom nearing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?
To establish this, we will look at the following mainstream airports in the UK using data from July 16, all of the way up to September 3:
- London Heathrow
- London Gatwick
- London Stansted
- Manchester
- Birmingham
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Belfast-International
- Cardiff
So without further ado, let’s get into the numbers:
London Heathrow
London Heathrow recorded 1,147 movements between August 27-September 3, which is a 54.58% increase compared to the same period last year on a seven-day rolling average.
The airport is around 245 movements short of achieving full recovery.
London Gatwick
London Gatwick achieved 850 movements on a seven-day rolling average for August 27-September 3, which is 172.44% more than the same period last year.
The airport is around 93 movements short of achieving full recovery.
London Stansted
London Stansted, between July 16-23, recorded 618 movements, which is an increase of 58.87% compared to the same period last year.
The airport has also exceeded pre-COVID levels by 21 movements. It is unclear what the data for August and September are at this time, but recovery has been achieved.
Manchester
Manchester Airport achieved 563 movements on a seven-day rolling average between August 27-September 3, which is 74.30% more than the same period last year.
However, the airport is around 91 movements short from achieving full recovery.
Birmingham
Birmingham Airport achieved 320 movements between July 16-23, which is 128.57% more than the same period last year.
The airport at that time was around 28 movements short of achieving full recovery.
Edinburgh
Between July 16-23, Edinburgh Airport achieved 335 movements, which is 108.07% more than the same period last year.
At that point, the airport was around 54 movements short of achieving full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Glasgow
Glasgow Airport achieved 239 movements between July 16-23, which is 92.74% more than the same period last year.
The airport, at that time, was around 46 movements short from achieving full recovery.
Belfast-International
Belfast-International Airport achieved 140 movements between July 16-23, which is 35.92% more than the same period achieved last year.
However, at that point, the airport was around 18 movements of achieving full recovery.
Cardiff
Cardiff Airport achieved 51 movements between July 16-23, which is 240% more than what was achieved in the same period last year.
At that point, the airport was around seven movements from recovery.
Overall…
Based on the data available, it shows that London Stansted is the only airport out of the ones listed that have exceeded pre-COVID movement numbers.
However, the other airports are less than 100 movements away from achieving pre-pandemic levels, which is a promising sign ahead.
All eyes will now be on the airports and the respective airlines to see how many more flights will be added ahead of what is due to be a busy Winter 2022/23 season.
