Air travel costs stopping a third of consumers from flying, CAA finds
Will PayneNearly a third of UK consumers who have not flown recently cited the cost of travel in light of budget constraints as a barrier to air travel, according to new data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
The regulator’s annual UK Aviation Consumer Survey, conducted in October 2022, found budget constraints were a bigger barrier to flying among younger people (36%) than those aged 55 and over (20%).
Those aged 18 to 34 are also significantly more likely to use "buy now, pay later" schemes to spread the cost of their holidays.
However, one in five of those who have been impacted by the rising cost of living say they will not make any changes to their flight behaviour, while around two in five UK adults are either planning to reduce the amount they fly (24%) or not to fly at all over the next 12 months (19%).
The survey found Covid-19 remains the most prevalent barrier to flying, with 32% of those who haven’t flown between October 2021 and October 2022 citing the virus as their reason for not flying.
Concern about flight disruption and cancellations was the third biggest common barrier to flying (15%), with the proportion of those who flew experiencing some form of disruption increasing to nearly two-thirds, the highest proportion since the regulator began tracking in 2016.
Paul Smith, consumer director at the CAA, said: "Concerns about Covid-19 remained a big issue, with our research telling us that some consumers had a continued fear about the pandemic itself, although there was a strong recovery in the number of passengers travelling in 2022.
"While it is welcome to see passenger numbers continue to steadily rise, we saw the challenges the aviation sector faced in the summer of 2022."
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