Friday 25 October 2019 9:11 am

Heathrow enjoys record passenger numbers amid rise of US and African traffic

Heathrow has posted a record number of passengers travelling through its airport this year, as a boon in transatlantic flights helped offset a slowdown in short-haul journeys.

The airport hub has said it is expecting its ninth consecutive year of growth after reporting a 0.7 per cent year-on-year rise in passenger numbers to 61m in the first nine months of 2019.

Intercontinental routes continued to be the key driver of growth, with North American traffic growing 3.8 per cent amid destinations to new routes including Las Vegas and Dallas.

New routes to Marrakesh, Seychelles and Durban also led to a rise in African traffic.

However, short haul traffic declined by 0.7 per cent with UK traffic down 0.5 per cent and European traffic down by 0.7 per cent “due to British Airways reducing movements in these markets”.

“Macroeconomic factors, Brexit and all these things do not help but the reality is it is not a major shift,” chief financial officer Javier Echave told Morning Wire

Echave said that there had been “zero disruption” from Extinction Rebellion, the climate change protest group that has targeted a number of airports in recent months.

Last month one of extinction rebellion’s co-founders was arrested for trying to fly a drone near Heathrow.

“We have a very strong collaboration with intelligence and a strong practice to deal with these things,” Echave said.

Buoyed by a “strong retail performance” as well as more passengers, Heathrow’s revenue rose 4.1 per cent to £2.3bn.