Heathrow Airport’s rolling 12-month traffic has reached a record 81.5 million passengers.
For comparison the airport welcomed a total of 79.2 million passengers in 2023, and recently increased its forecast for 2024 from 81.4 to 82.4 million.
The airport served 7.2 million customers last month, the first time the London hub has passed the seven-million mark during May.
Heathrow said it expects more records to be broken in the coming months, with an estimated 30 million passengers set to travel through the airport over the summer period.
CEO Thomas Woldbye said that Heathrow had “put Covid firmly behind us”, adding that “Supporting 81 million 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”.
Meanwhile London Stansted also reported a record May, with 2.7 million passengers travelling through the airport.
The figure was up by 143,000 on Stansted’s previous busiest May in 2019, and brings the airport’s 12-monthly rolling total to 28.8 million, up nearly 10 per cent on the previous year.
The top destinations last month were Dublin, Istanbul and Edinburgh, while the most popular countries were Spain, Italy and Germany.
Commenting on the news James Richardson, London Stansted’s finance director, said:
“The record-breaking numbers were boosted by a very busy half-term week as hundreds of thousands of Brits headed off on holiday as well as huge numbers of overseas visitors choosing the airport as their gateway to London and the East of England.
“We were also delighted to see the return of British Airways to Stansted during the month with the launch of three exciting new services which I’m sure will prove very popular with passengers looking to head off to Ibiza, Nice and Florence this summer.
“Ahead of the main summer getaway, we expect this month to be yet another busy period for the airport. We have already played host to thousands of football fans arriving for the Champions League final at Wembley earlier this month, and we are now preparing to welcome even more fans to Stansted as they head off to Euro 2024 thanks to the ten direct services available to Germany.”
Last week industry trade association ACI Europe published its latest traffic figures, showing volumes just 0.2 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels, or as ACI put it “a hair’s breadth away from full recovery”.
ACI EUROPE: Passenger traffic “a hair’s breadth away from full recovery”
