There are many commercial international airports within the UK and lots of other domestic or private airfields. Heathrow Airport is currently the busiest airport in the UK and serves passengers for domestic flights within the UK, external flights to the rest of the world and it is also a hub for connecting flights to many countries as well. The UK is a small country but it can take hours to drive from one end of the country to the other which is why domestic internal flights are popular from the smaller airports. These are the Top 20 busiest airports in the UK for 2016: Rank 2019 Airport Total Passengers Aircraft Movements 2018 2019 Change 2018 / 19 2018 2019 Change 2018 / 19 1 London Heathrow 80, 124, 537 80, 890, 031 1.01.0% 477, 604 478, 059 0.10.1% 2 London Gatwick 46, 086, 089 46, 576, 473 1.11.1% 283, 919 284, 987 0.40.4% 3 Manchester 28, 292, 797 29, 397, 537 3.93.9% 201, 247 202, 892 0.80.8% 4 London Stansted 27, 996, 116 28, 124, 292 0.50.5% 201, 614 199, 925 -0.80.8% 5 London Luton 16, 769, 634 18, 216, 207 8.68.6% 136, 511 141, 858 3.93.9% 6 Edinburgh 14, 294, 305 14, 737, 497 3.13.1% 130, 016 131, 617 1.21.2% 7 Birmingham 12, 457, 051 12, 650, 607 1.61.6% 111, 828 109, 357 -2.22.2% 8 Bristol 8, 699, 529 8, 964, 242 3.03.0% 72, 927 69, 434 -4.84.8% 9 Glasgow 9, 656, 227 8, 847, 100 -8.48.4% 97, 157 91, 812 -5.55.5% 10 Belfast International 6, 268, 960 6, 278, 563 0.20.2% 60, 541 59, 259 -2.12.1% 11 Newcastle 5, 334, 095 5, 203, 624 -2.42.4% 53, 740 50, 688 -5.75.7% 12 London City 4, 820, 292 5, 122, 271 6.36.3% 80, 854 84, 260 4.24.2% 13 Liverpool 5, 046, 995 5, 045, 991 -0.00.0% 59, 320 58, 698 -0.60.6% 14 East Midlands 4, 873, 831 4, 675, 411 -4.14.1% 76, 013 74, 566 -1.91.9% 15 Leeds Bradford 4, 038, 889 3, 992, 862 -1.11.1% 38, 680 35, 614 -7.97.9% 16 Aberdeen 3, 056, 018 2, 912, 883 -4.74.7% 91, 279 91, 248 -0.00.0% 17 Belfast City 2, 511, 261 2, 445, 529 -2.22.2% 35, 959 35, 382 -1.61.6% 18 London Southend 1, 480, 139 2, 035, 535 37.537.5% 32, 531 36, 327 11.711.7% 19 Southampton 1, 991, 014 1, 781, 457 -10.510.5% 39, 651 36, 473 -8.08.0% 20 Jersey 1, 664, 175 1, 762, 949 5.95.9% 42, 436 41, 296 -2.72.7% The above tables show the number of passengers for the top 30 busiest airports in the UK for last year (2016) and the year previous (2015) as well as the Year on Year change between them. Airport Information Index: 1. The busiest airport are ranked depending on the number of passengers flying to or from each airport. 2. Passenger may only be catching connecting flights from an airport to another destination. 3. Passenger Number data is related to the Airport Council International estimated full year figures for 2016. Or view the Top Busiest Airports in the World?