Despite the slump in sterling relative to the dollar, America is way ahead of other long-haul destinations in terms of bookings for summer 2019.
Data from Travelport shows that an average of almost 4,400 people a day will fly between the UK and the US from 28 June to 8 September.
The travel commerce platform analysed return trip bookings made through global distribution systems for destinations six hours or more from the UK. Only direct flights were counted.
The US will see more visitors from the UK that the next four long-haul destinations combined.
The next highest destination, India, will see a daily average of 1,220.
The UAE, predominantly Dubai, gets 1,080 daily passengers.
Given that the aviation capacity between the UK and the UAE, which is roughly 10,000 per day, this shows that most travellers are planning to transfer immediately to destinations beyond the extreme heat of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The only other country to break the thousand-travellers-a-day barrier is Canada, with 1,060.
Additional bookings will have been made directly with airlines.
Further down the list are Pakistan (870 passengers a day), which is principally British travellers with Pakistani heritage.
Thailand (670) is ahead of China and South Africa, which are effectively tied on 410 per day.
China has seen 13 per cent growth year-on-year. Paul Broughton, Travelport’s managing director for Northern Europe, said: “It was interesting to see China become a top ten long-haul summer destination for UK travellers this year, having sat just outside in 11th place last year.”
Seven per cent more bookings have been made for South Africa.
Australia, like South Africa, is principally a winter destination, but still features as the destination for 380 daily departures.
In 10th place is Bangladesh with 340 bookings a day.
