Public Figures

Britain’s official statistics

Airport passengers

Leeds Bradford · May 2026

Leeds Bradford handled 491,297 terminal passengers in May 2026 — up 8% on May 2025, when it handled 452,908.

Read from the Civil Aviation Authority’s monthly airport data, table 09 — terminal and transit passengers, in the vintage we archived on 11 August 2026.

491,297

terminal passengers

Passengers beginning or ending a journey at Leeds Bradford, May 2026

That made it the 13th-busiest of the 47 UK airports reporting to the CAA in May 2026.

Its busiest month on our record was August 2025, at 543,043. The record starts in January 2019.

The busiest UK airports in May 2026

  1. 1stHeathrow7,120,998
  2. 2ndGatwick3,738,837
  3. 3rdManchester2,930,308
  4. 4thStansted2,829,477
  5. 5thLuton1,753,706
  6. 6thEdinburgh1,654,718
  7. 7thBirmingham1,306,203
  8. 8thBristol1,077,177
  9. 9thGlasgow817,491
  10. 2 airports between
    13thLeeds Bradford491,297
  11. out of 47 UK airports reporting that month

Terminal passengers, as published. Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man report to the CAA but are not in the United Kingdom; they have pages here and are left out of this ranking.

Every month on record

Jan 20190543,043 across 89 readings on recordMay 2026

One cell per month from Jan 2019 to May 2026, shaded from this airport’s own quietest month to its busiest. The record starts in January 2019, which is far enough back to hold a pre-2020 comparison.

The last thirteen months

MonthTerminal passengersIn transitOn the same month a year earlier
May 2026491,2970up 8% on May 2025
Apr 2026389,6600up 7% on April 2025
Mar 2026285,9980up 2% on March 2025
Feb 2026218,2730down 5% on February 2025
Jan 2026195,0490down 1% on January 2025
Dec 2025233,1900up 2% on December 2024
Nov 2025243,6220down 3% on November 2024
Oct 2025410,4330up 1% on October 2024
Sep 2025480,0280up 4% on September 2024
Aug 2025543,0430up 5% on August 2024
Jul 2025516,0220up 7% on July 2024
Jun 2025496,7740up 2% on June 2024
May 2025452,9080up 9% on May 2024

Each month is compared with the same month a year earlier, which is the comparison the CAA makes. The percentage here is ours, calculated from the two months in our own series rather than taken from the publisher’s comparison column.