New figures from Cirium have revealed a sharp contraction in the UK aviation sector in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a new report, a total of 406,060 international flights operated from the UK this year.

This is compared with 1,399,170 in 2019, before travel was restricted by the spreading virus.

This represents a 71 per cent decline.

UK domestic flights also fell by nearly 60 per cent, said aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Budget airline Ryanair remained the largest carrier in the UK, with more than 100,000 UK flights in 2021.

Low-cost rival easyJet followed closely behind, with more than 82,000 flights in total, according to data collected by Cirium.

The busiest international route was between London Heathrow and JFK in New York.

This was despite the US only opening its borders to UK travellers in November.

American travellers have been able to travel to the UK since July 28th.

Short-haul flights proved to be the most popular, with eight out of the ten most popular routes being to Europe.

London Heathrow to Amsterdam, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt came in third, fourth and fifth place respectively.

Source: Civil Aviation Authority – Qatar