Our quarterly Aviation Trends report.
The images below are taken from the CAA’s quarterly Aviation Trends report. They show annual records of UK flight movements, passengers, punctuality and more, over the past 10 years. Further information and detail are held in the report.
For the full quarterly Aviation Trends report see: Aviation trends 2026 Q1
For access to the underlying data in the report see:
10 year trends
Annual Passengers, Air Transport Movements (ATM) and Cargo Tonnage
ATM's (millions)
(NB: 2025 values are year-to-date and will update throughout the year)
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Air Transport Movements data for chart
Year
ATM (millions)
2016
2.2
2017
2.3
2018
2.3
2019
2.3
2020
0.9
2021
0.8
2022
1.7
2023
2
2024
2.1
2025
2.1
2026
0.4
Terminal passengers (millions)
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Annual terminal passengers (millions) data for chart
Year
Terminal passengers (millions)
2016
271
2017
288
2018
295
2019
300
2020
74
2021
65
2022
224
2023
276
2024
295
2025
302
2016
61
Cargo tonnage (millions)
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Cargo Tonnage data for chart
Year
Cargo tonnage (millions)
2016
2.6
2017
2.8
2018
2.8
2019
2.7
2020
2.2
2021
2.5
2022
2.3
2023
2.4
2024
2.7
2025
2.8
2026
0.7
Average load factor (%)
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Average load factor data for chart
Year
Average load factor (%)
2016
81
2017
82
2018
84
2019
84
2020
61
2021
57
2022
79
2023
82
2024
83
2025
83
2026
79
Average seats per flight
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Average seat per flight data for chart
Year
Average seat per flight
2016
162
2017
165
2018
166
2019
170
2020
164
2021
165
2022
177
2023
181
2024
183
2025
185
2026
187
Flight punctuality trends
Percentage on time performance (percentage of flights operated within 15mins of scheduled time)
(NB: 2025 values are year-to-date and will update throughout the year)
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Percentage on time performance data for chart
Year
Flights operated within 15mins of scheduled time (%)
2016
75
2017
75
2018
72
2019
75
2020
83
2021
83
2022
62
2023
64
2024
67
2025
73
2026
77
Average delay minutes per flight
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Average delay minutes per flight data for chart
Year
Average delay minutes per flight
2016
15
2017
14
2018
18
2019
15
2020
10
2021
9
2022
22
2023
21
2024
19
2025
15
2026
13
Percentage of flights cancelled (within 24 hours before departure)
(NB: Comprehensive cancellation data is reported from 2018.)
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Percentage of flights cancelled (within 24 hours before departure) data for chart
Year
Flight cancelled within 24 hours of scheduled departure (%)
2016
0.3
2017
0.6
2018
1.5
2019
0.9
2020
3.7
2021
1.2
2022
1.6
2023
1.8
2024
1.4
2025
1.0
2026
1.7