Public Figures

Britain’s official statistics

Airport passengers

Southampton · May 2026

Southampton handled 82,631 terminal passengers in May 2026 — up 1% on May 2025, when it handled 81,640.

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.

82,631

terminal passengers

Passengers beginning or ending a journey at Southampton, May 2026

That made it the 22nd-busiest of the 47 UK airports reporting to the CAA in May 2026.

Its busiest month on our record was August 2019, at 189,732. 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. 11 airports between
    22ndSouthampton82,631
  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 20191,172189,732 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 202682,6310up 1% on May 2025
Apr 202676,2670little changed on April 2025
Mar 202669,5560up 1% on March 2025
Feb 202658,9960up 1% on February 2025
Jan 202653,4360up 3% on January 2025
Dec 202566,91929up 3% on December 2024
Nov 202564,2420up 2% on November 2024
Oct 202575,3860up 2% on October 2024
Sep 202581,2220down 1% on September 2024
Aug 202588,9030up 1% on August 2024
Jul 202586,36551up 6% on July 2024
Jun 202584,5150up 4% on June 2024
May 202581,6400up 6% 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.