Spain remains Britons ' favourite destination to fly to , as it has been for more than 25 years , with its more than 34 million journeys in 2014 over double that of the next most popular , the United States . New figures from the UK Civil Aviation Authority shows 238m passengers passed through British airports in 2014 , just three million less than the pre-recession boom peak of 241m in 2007 and 10m more ( a 4.4 per cent rise ) than 2013 . As would be expected , most passengers ( 144m ) fly to Europe which enjoyed a 5.4 per cent rise year on year in visitors from the UK . Perhaps surprisingly though , Germany proved a more visited destination even than France and Italy , which were all ranked behind Spain and the US and ahead of Ireland and the Netherlands . The United Arab Emirates also ranks in the top 10 countries British flyers most travel to and enjoyed the largest passenger increase in the past year with a 430,000 boost ( 7.4 per cent ) to 6.2m . The UAE ranked ahead of Portugal and Switzerland , who round out the top 10 , and Turkey in 11th . While only the 12 most visited country by plane , Greece is the biggest improver over the past year with its 5.6 million incoming passengers from Britain a 13.2 per cent increase . While topping numerous polls as UK travellers ' dream destination , Australia suffered the biggest drop in UK arrivals losing a third of visitors from 744,000 to 488,000 . In Europe , the country with the largest fall in passengers was Poland with a minute drop of 0.1m to 5.2m . There has been a rise of 2.3 per cent in passengers flying to and from North America from the UK , which has now reached 21m per year . Travellers to and from other international destinations has now increased 3.7 per cent to 33.6m . Domestic flights rose for the second consecutive year to 21m , a 2.4 per cent increase on 2013 , but this is still well below 2005 's 25m . 1 ) Spain . 2 ) USA . 3 ) Germany . 4 ) Italy . 5 ) France . 6 ) Irish Republic . 7 ) Netherlands . 8 ) UAE . 9 ) Portugal . 10 ) Switzerland . 34,265,349 . 17,869,603 . 12,485,818 . 11,920,740 . 10,664,689 . 10,435,227 . 8,749,231 . 6,223,650 . 6,103,192 . 6,099,107 . 11 ) Turkey . 12 ) Greece . 13 ) Poland . 14 ) Canada . 15 ) Denmark . 16 ) Norway . 17 ) India . 18 ) Sweden . 19 ) Cyprus . 20 ) Egypt . 5,734,943 . 5,608,616 . 5,206,380 . 3,163,422 . 2,977,668 . 2,749,001 . 2,739,969 . 2,598,069 . 2,292,287 . 1,991,374 . There were a total of 2.1m landings and take-offs ( air transport movements ) of commercial flights in 2014 , an increase of 1.1 per cent on 2013 . While every London airport increased its passenger traffic in 2014 , some regional areas suffered . Heathrow ( a total of 73.4m up 1.4 per cent up on 2013 ) , Gatwick ( 38.1m up 7.5 per cent ) , Luton ( 10.5m up 8.1 per cent ) and London City ( 3.6m up 7.9 per cent ) . The biggest improvers were Southend with a 13.6 rise to 1.1m and Stansted with an increase of 11.7 per cent to 19.9m . Charter flights were another market to fall in 2014 with a 6 per cent ( 1.2m ) fall from 2013 to 18.5m , in contrast to the scheduled flights increase of 4.2 per cent . 'Our latest passenger figures show that demand for air travel continues at a pace and is now just shy of the pre-recession peak reached in 2007 , ' CAA spokesperson Henry Killworth said . 'This is fantastic news for the UK 's strong aviation industry and with the economy likely to grow further in 2015 , we can expect even more passengers flying abroad this year . 'Our figures also show the UK 's love affair with Spain continues unabated and remains the UK 's favourite destination , which it has been every year since records began . ' Girls take sefies in front of Berlin 's Brandenburg Gate in Germany , which is more popular than Italy or France .
it has been the most popular destination for Britons for over 40 years . Germany attracts more visitors from the mainland than even France and approx . 238 m up passed through British ##town in 2014 , 238 m up on 2013 .