MODEL ANSWER:
The table illustrates how many people used three airports in the UK from 1998 TO 2003.
Overall, Heathrow airport experienced an unstable pattern in the number of its users, while the figures for Gatwick and Stansted airports generally rose, with the count of visitors for the matter showing a plateau in the second half of the span covered. It is also clear that Gatwick had by far the highest number of visitors in each year, with the exception of the year 2002.
Focusing firstly on similar trends, Gatwick airport’s visitors numbered 36.5 million in 1998, whereas the figures for Stansed was less than half that number (17.3m ) in the same year. Over the next 2 years, the number of users in the latter soared to 39.9 million, before stabilizing and finishing the period with a slightly higher count of 43.3 million. However, Gatwick’s figures continued to increase markedly by more or less 3 million in each of the following years up until 2002, amounting to 51.1 million, thereafter peaking at 69.3 million.
The pattern of change in Heathrow was different. Starting the period with 27.2 million users, its figure had gone up to 48.2 million by 2002, followed by a drop to 33.2 million 2 years later. In the final year, though, it climbed to 45.6 million.