The pie charts illustrate the purposes for which visitors travelled through four UK airports—Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, and Stansted—in the year 2016.
Overall, it is clear that holidays and visiting friends and family were the main reasons for travel, whereas business and other purposes were less common. It is also noteworthy that Luton and Stansted airports were mostly used by travellers visiting friends and family, while Gatwick and Heathrow saw a majority of passengers travelling for holidays and business.
Looking at Gatwick Airport, holiday travellers were the highest proportion of total flights at 54%, significantly outnumbering those visiting friends/family (30%) and business travellers (14%). Heathrow Airport, while still having a substantial holiday segment (33%), showed a more balanced distribution, with visiting friends/family being the most straightforward purpose at 37% and business travel at a notable 26%. Those who were travelling for other reasons were the smallest group, making up 4% of passengers at Heathrow and 2% at Gatwick.
Turning to Luton and Stansted airports, visiting friends/family topped the list, accounting for 50% and 48%, respectively. Holiday travels ranked second in both airports, followed by business purposes, which had nearly similar proportions of 13% in Luton and 14% in Stansted. Other purposes made up a mere 2% of travellers in both airports.