More Brits flying to Italy

Growing numbers of Brits are taking advantage of the raft of cheap flights to Italy, new figures show.

Last year saw an 11 per cent increase in passengers on flights from the UK to Italy, with one million more people flying than the year before.

After Italy, the flights to show the biggest increases in passenger numbers were to Ireland and Poland, figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) reveal.

Passenger numbers on flights to Ireland grew by 900,000 (nine per cent), but it was flights to Poland that saw the biggest percentage growth, with an extra 800,000 passengers equating to an 85 per cent increase on 2004.

Elsewhere, there were 26 million passengers on UK domestic flights, up by four per cent on 2004.

On flights to North America there were 22 million passengers, but this is still below the levels for 2000 when the figure was 23 million.

About 25 million passengers took flights to destinations other than Europe and North America.

The highest growth was on routes to North Africa, up by 800,000 passengers (38 per cent), the Indian subcontinent, up by 600,000 (27 per cent), and Australasia, up by 300,000 (33 per cent). XXX