Heathrow breaking records as passenger numbers soar

London Heathrow expects to handle a record-breaking 83.8 million passengers in 2024 – an average of 230,000 per day.

The prediction from the UK’s largest airport comes as it reports its first post-Covid profit for the nine months to September. Its adjusted profit before tax was £350m, compared with a loss of £19m in the same spell last year. It represents profits of £1.3m per day. Part of the successful summer was down to “iconic music stars passing through the UK”, the airport said.

Taylor Swift was among the artists who contributed to “a late-summer spike in departures”.

Landings and take-offs rose by 5.5 per cent to an average of 1,302 per day during the first nine months of the year.

With a limit of 1,315 aircraft movements each day, further growth can come mainly from airlines using larger aircraft and leaving fewer seats empty. In fact the average size of plane fell very slightly, but this was offset by the average “load factor” – the percentage of passengers on each plane – rosing slightly from 80 to 80.7 per cent.

Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said: “This summer has tested our colleagues, infrastructure and airlines to cooperate harder than ever before, with record numbers of passengers travelling through the busiest two-runway airport in the world.

“We have risen to this challenge, delivering excellent service with over 91 per cent of passengers waiting at security for less than five minutes.”

He called on chancellor Rachel Reeves to use the budget next week as “a prime opportunity to set the aviation industry up for long-term success”. The airport is seeking a revenue-certainty mechanism to encourage the production in the UK of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). There is also a concern that Air Passenger Duty (APD) will rise as the Ms Reeves seeks to raise more revenue from a range of taxes.

APD is extremely easy to collect, because airlines take it from each traveller and write a cheque to the Treasury each month, and currently raises £4.5bn annually. Mr Woldbye is calling for “joined-up policy making that makes sense for aviation”.

From April next year, all international transit passengers – except UK and Irish citizens – will be required to pay £10 and enrol online for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), even if they are merely changing planes “airside”.