The recession and general state of the economy has had a significant bearing on both businesses and consumers alike. The recent news outlining that the US was coming out of recession last week with a 0.9% growth within their economy from July to September is clearly good news for Europe and the UK, though the fact the UK is yet to get itself out of a negative state leaves many wondering when the economic gloom will clear. However, key indicators suggest that things are changing, be it a rise in house purchases or car sales, and one of these indicators pertinent to the UK travel market is the increase in volume of passengers travelling out of UK airports.

According to BAA’s recent September Traffic Report, “BAA’s seven UK airports handled a total of 13.0 million passengers in September, 2.6% down on last year and a similar year on year result to that achieved in July and August. In March this year, traffic across the UK airports was down 11.3%, so recent figures suggest that while underlying market conditions remain soft, there are some signs of a recovery.”

“In practical terms, there has been growth across BAA’s UK airports in the last two quarters of 2009, though the passenger volumes are still down year on year”, comments Dan Hart, CEO of nowfly.co.uk. “This is clearly positive news for all associated with air travel within the UK. The last year has been incredibly tough, particularly for a company such as nowfly.co.uk that launched its service in one of the worst economic downturns experienced in the UK. Any positive shift in consumer confidence will undoubtedly filter through to those deciding now to take that wellearned short-break or family holiday. Thankfully, there are still many fantastic flight deals to be had, particularly whilst the UK’s airlines have to aggressively market their services, offering compelling short and long-haul flight offers.”