British people are travelling abroad more than ever before, according to a report from the Office for National Statistics. There were 66.4 million trips overseas from the UK in 2005, more than three times the figure for 1981, with Spain and the Canary Islands the most popular places visited by plane in 2005, it says. The United States and Ireland were the second and third most popular. Air travel accounted for 81% of all overseas trips in 2005, up from 60% in 1981, according to the ONS Social Trends report, while sea travel fell from 41% to 12%.