Heathrow Airport to cap off year in record style
Heathrow Airport is set to cap off its busiest-ever year with two record months as passenger numbers soar over the Christmas period.
The Hounslow hub said it served 6.5m passengers in November, up 6.1 per cent year-on-year, and on Wednesday forecast December would also be a record breaker. Christmas day is expected to see close to a quarter jump in passenger numbers, it added.
Such strong demand saw eight of Heathrow’s key destinations join a select few which have served over 1m passengers so far in 2024.
The UK’s biggest airport is currently on target for 25 of its routes to reach 1m passengers, up from 24 last year.
“This year has been all about providing high levels of service for record amounts of passengers at Heathrow, and November was no different,” Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said in a statement.
“As we embrace the festive season, our focus remains on ensuring smooth, joyful journeys—whether it is helping passengers get away for Christmas to reunite with their loved ones, or making sure cargo reaches its destination on time.”
It comes after Heathrow forecast in November that it would break its pre-pandemic record for full-year passenger traffic, following massive demand over the summer.
Some 83.8m travellers are expected to pass through its gates in 2024, an increase of 2.9m on 2019’s 80.9m. The airport’s Jan to November total already stands at 76.8m following Wednesday’s announcement, up 6 per per cent year-on-year.
Demand for travel has shown little signs of tailing off this year, despite concerns that a two-year post-Covid boom, driven by so-called pent up demand, may run out of steam.
Barring Europe and the UK, transatlantic trips have made up the lion’s share of Heathrow’s yearly traffic so far, at just over 20m.
In what has proved an incredibly busy year for the hub, the green-light was also given by government for the French buyout group Ardian and the Saudi PIF’s swoop for a lucrative majority stake, Morning Wire reported last month.