Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the percentage decrease has been in flights arriving at (a) Heathrow and (b) Gatwick airports since the start of the covid-19 lockdown in the UK; and what proportion of flights arriving during that period were (i) cargo only and (ii) passenger or cargo with passengers.

Monitoring of flight traffic conducted by Eurocontrol shows that between 24 March 2020 and 11 May 2020 the total number of flights arriving at Heathrow and Gatwick have decreased by 84% and 98% respectively when compared to the same date range of the previous year.

It is not possible to accurately determine from this data source whether flights during this period were cargo only or passenger flights, this information is officially collected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and received from UK airports up to two months after the end of each month in adherence to statistical regulation (EC) 437/2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.