Aviation

In 2023, 45% of adults said they had taken at least one flight for leisure in the last 12 months. This is an increase from 2022 (38%), but lower than 2019 (53%). [Table 37a and Figure 19]

A line chart showing the percentage of adults taking flights for leisure. This had been increasing 2012 to 2019, dropped in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic and recovered a little in 2023.
Figure 19: Percentage of adults taking flights for leisure, 2012-2023

Flights taken for business remained lower than in the period 2009 to 2019. In 2023, 5% of adults had taken a flight for business compared to 8% in 2019. [Table 38a]

Flights to Europe were most common amongst those flying for leisure (80% of those that flew for leisure flew to Europe at least once). For business flyers, flights to the rest of the UK were most common (59% flew at least once to the rest of the UK).[Tables 37b, 38b]

By far the two most common reasons people gave for flying within the UK over other forms of transport was that it was quicker (82%) and cheaper (38%). [Table 39]