The four pie charts illustrate the proportions of travel purposes among passengers using Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, and Stansted airports in 2016. The categories include holiday, business, visiting friends and relatives, and other purposes.
Overall, holidays represented the dominant reason for air travel at Gatwick and Stansted, whereas Heathrow had a more balanced distribution with business travel playing a comparatively larger role. Luton, meanwhile, showed a relatively even split between holidays and visits to friends or relatives.
At Gatwick Airport, more than half of the passengers (54%) travelled for holidays, while visiting friends and relatives accounted for 30%. Business travel and other purposes were far less significant, at 14% and 2% respectively. Stansted showed a similar trend, with almost half of passengers (48%) travelling for holidays and 36% for visiting relatives, while business (14%) and other (2%) remained marginal.
In contrast, Heathrow Airport presented a different pattern: business travel represented the largest proportion at 29%, closely followed by holidays (33%) and visiting friends and family (37%). Only 1% fell into the “other” category. Likewise, Luton Airport reported 46% of travellers going on holiday, and 30% visiting relatives, while business (13%) and other purposes (11%) accounted for smaller shares.
In summary, while holidays were the primary reason for travel in most airports, Heathrow was distinctive in its relatively high percentage of business travel compared to the other three airports.