London Heathrow Airport carried a record number of passengers in the last year as demand for travel rebounded dramatically from Covid-era lows.
Some 81.5m passengers passed through the Hounslow hub in the 12 months to May, the most in its history. It followed a bumper May, in which traffic exceeded 7m for the first time ever at 7.2m.
Pent-up demand following years of Covid lockdowns fuelled a resurgence in holiday trips in 2023 and airlines posted huge profits as a result. Heathrow specifically has benefitted from soaring demand for transatlantic travel and trips to the Far East.
Passenger traffic to North America totalled 20.3m in the 12 months to May, up 11.7 per cent year-on-year, while trips to the Asia Pacific region rose a whopping 36.6 per cent, to 10.5m.
Thomas Woldbye, chief executive, said: “We have a winning team at Heathrow which has proven that we have put Covid firmly behind us. Thanks to their extraordinary efforts we are now giving record numbers of people the chance to connect smoothly with the world.
“Supporting 81m journeys doesn’t just help families to make wonderful holiday memories, importantly it is about the vital trade and business links a hub like Heathrow creates for the UK’s economy.”
The UK’s biggest airport endured a chequered recovery from the pandemic amid a downturn in business travel and disputes with airlines over the amount it can charge for landing fees.
But it has turned a corner in recent months as Thomas Woldbye, the Dane brought in from Copenhagen Airport, settles into his new role in the top job.
The West-London hub turned a profit for the first time since the pandemic in February as passenger numbers rose by nearly a quarter.
Soon after, it bumped up its forecast for full-year passenger numbers from 81.4m to 82.4m, a figure which would beat 2019’s previous record.
Heathrow is in the middle of a major ownership shake-up following an announcement from the Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial in November that it planned to sell its 25 per cent stake to Saudi Arabia’s PIF and the French group Ardian, for £2.4bn.