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London Heathrow, the busiest airport within the UK, dealt with a file variety of passengers within the first three months of 2024, however the specter of disruption looms with a sequence of deliberate walkouts over the subsequent month.
Between January and March, 18.5 million passengers travelled via Heathrow – a median of 200,000 per day.
The airport mentioned the expansion got here from “key enterprise routes like Delhi and Mumbai, sturdy North American site visitors and surging East Asian demand rising 40 per cent”.
Latin American passenger numbers elevated by 20 per cent, however routes to and from Africa noticed no development.
Javier Echave, Heathrow’s chief monetary officer, instructed The Impartial: “I feel that we’re the most effective hub in Europe. We’ve got demonstrated that firstly of this yr and we now have a improbable summer season forward of us.”
The airport’s prediction for full-year passenger numbers has elevated to 82.4 million, which might be a brand new file. In 2019, the final full yr earlier than the pandemic, Heathrow dealt with 80.9 million passengers. In 2023, the determine was 79 million.
Mr Echave who is because of turn out to be chief working officer on 26 April, faces an instantaneous array of commercial motion challenges on the airport.
Greater than 300 PCS union members working for UK Border Drive plan to stroll out from 29 April to 2 Might. Fifty plane refuellers who’re members of the Unite union will strike for 72 hours from 4 Might. The union can also be calling out firefighters and employees in airside operations, passenger providers, trolley operations and campus safety from Tuesday 7 Might to Monday 13 Might.
The Heathrow CFO mentioned: “We consider that these strikes are completely pointless. However, look, we respect the end result. And what I can let you know is that we’re prepared and reassure passengers that really, everybody will fly and can have the absolute best expertise at Heathrow.
“We’re able to serve all of you with none disruption.”
Heathrow reported a £83m adjusted revenue earlier than tax for the quarter. However the airport insists {that a} cap on fees imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority a yr in the past will go away a £400m hole in its account over the subsequent 5 years.
The airport’s growth plans, together with a 3rd runway, have been on ice for the reason that pandemic. Mr Echave declined to say when the venture is likely to be revived.
“We’re reviewing the enterprise case,” he mentioned. “We’re re-engaging with all of the stakeholders. It is a complicated determination, a tough determination.
“We’re very eager that we make the proper determination, and that’s why it’s taking us barely longer. Heathrow has been constrained for a few years.”
The common plane on the airport stuffed three-quarters of its seats within the first three months of the yr, up marginally from 74 per cent in 2023.
