Several of Britain’s smaller airports are struggling to recover from the changes wrought to air travel by the pandemic, with some recording passenger numbers down by nearly 50 per cent or more on pre-Covid-19 levels.
Fears that some local airports could follow Doncaster Sheffield into closure have arisen as the sector admits it is experiencing a two-tier recovery, with carriers having retrenched to larger airports. Regional connectivity has already been hit by the failure of Flybe in 2020.
Analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data by The Times reveals large falls in passenger numbers at smaller airports last year compared with 2019, despite them often being enjoyed by travellers for their hassle-free environments relative to larger hubs.
Southampton is down 48 per cent from 1.7 million passengers a year to 880,000 and Exeter has fallen by 43 per cent from 1 million to 570,000. Both airports were heavily dependent on the now-defunct Flybe.
Passenger numbers at Cardiff, which is suffering from its proximity to the strongly performing Bristol, have fallen by 40 per cent from 1.6 million a year to 950,000 after the exits of Qatar Airways and Wizz Air.
London City Airport, which is heavily dependent on business travellers and constrained by its size from accommodating larger short-haul airlines, has recorded a 27 per cent decline in passenger numbers from a record 5.1 million to 3.7 million.
Southend, once promoted as a new London airport but which had to be rescued from collapse during the pandemic after easyJet and Ryanair withdrew services, has recorded a 64 per cent drop in patronage from 2 million a year to 720,000.
Aberdeen, which is dependent on the oil and gas industry, is down by 20 per cent to 2.3 million. East Midlands, which has become pre-eminent as a freight hub, has seen passenger numbers fall by 15 per cent to 3.9 million.
Doncaster Sheffield, which handled 1.4 million passengers before the turn of the decade, closed in 2022 after Tui and Wizz Air quit the airport.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport.” class=”wp-image-20379747″/>It comes despite air travel being at a record high, with UK airports handling 299 million passengers in 2025, up 2.3 per cent year on year and just under 1 per cent higher than the previous peak of nearly 297 million in the pre-Covid year of 2019.
AirportsUK, the sector’s trade body, admitted there had been a post-pandemic two-tier recovery but said smaller airports remained “viable and competitive”.
Southampton Airport with only a few passengers queuing at check-in desks and a man with a blue suitcase waiting in a roped-off area.” class=”wp-image-20379737″/>Karen Dee, chief executive of AirportsUK, said: “Air travel was devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with airlines consolidating their operations as a result of global lockdowns.
“Recovery back to the levels we saw in 2019 is a long process and while many airports are now serving more passengers than ever, some continue to rebuild.”
That airline retrenchment to major hubs has led to Heathrow handling an extra 3.6 million passengers a year since 2019 to a record 84.5 million passengers, or 28 per cent of all passengers getting on a plane in the UK. That appears to have come at the expense of Gatwick, London’s second airport, which has recorded a 3.8 million, or 8 per cent, fall in passengers to 42.7 million.
Stansted Airport, waiting for their delayed flights.” class=”wp-image-20379767″/>The next two largest airports, Manchester and Stansted, which are in the same ownership, have put on between them an extra 4.3 million passengers to 32 million and 29.7 million respectively.
The strongest of the regional airports are getting stronger too. Passenger numbers at Edinburgh were up 15 per cent at 16.9 million while Birmingham was 8 per cent ahead at 13.6 million.
