Heathrow chases summer gold for UK plc as it smashes all-time records

Almost 8 million passengers travelled through Heathrow in July, seeing the UK’s hub retain gold spot on the podium as the busiest airport in Europe in the first half of the year – ahead of Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris Charles de Gaulle by millions of passengers

Before July 2024, Heathrow had never surpassed 1.8m passengers in a week. This has now been achieved three weeks in a row (08 – 28 July), as the airport continues to break its own records

Heathrow saw six of its busiest ever departure days in the week the schools broke up for the summer holiday period (from 22 July), with over 140k direct departing passengers and almost 140k bags leaving the airport daily. Close collaboration with our partners meant that the airport has performed well with no material impacts on flights from the recent global IT outage or illegal protest activity

Venice and Larnaca proved popular destinations for those jetting off for some summer sun, as Doha and Dublin joined Dubai and JFK as the latest routes with one million passengers travelling to and from Heathrow this year. There were also big boosts for Orlando and many other US destinations such as Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Dallas

Heathrow experienced an 8% increase in cargo tonnage in July 2024 compared to July 2023. This strong performance underscores Heathrow’s position as the UK’s leading air cargo hub, boosting the UK economy, helping drive exports, tourism and investment across the country

While Heathrow continues to attract new routes and record passenger numbers, the latest data following the introduction of the ETA shows that Heathrow has lost 90,000 transfer passengers on routes operating to and from the seven countries included in the scheme, since its introduction in 2023. This is devastating for our hub competitiveness. We urge Government to review the inclusion of airside transit passengers, every little bit of extra competitiveness that Government can deliver for aviation will help deliver vital growth for the whole of the UK economy

Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said: “Team GB’s performance in Paris has been an inspiration to the nation and to Team Heathrow. In July, we were smashing a passenger record almost every single day and we’re chasing down our never before seen goal of serving 8 million passengers in a single month. I’m proud that although there were a few potential challenges which could have caused us to stumble, our team remained focused on the prize of making every journey better and delivered a medal-winning start to the summer getaway.” 

Traffic Summary

July 2024

Terminal Passengers
(000s)
 Jul 2024
% Change
Jan to
Jul 2024
% Change
Aug 2023 to
Jul 2024
% Change

Market

UK
             409
14.7
           2,676
10.6
           4,499
15.3

EU
           2,768
7.7
         15,929
7.7
         27,297
10.4

Non-EU Europe
             536
5.2
           3,295
8.5
           5,586
11.3

Africa
             279
-11.4
           1,927
-7.8
           3,435
0.1

North America
           2,048
0.5
         11,715
3.6
         20,366
8.6

Latin America
             178
0.3
           1,261
4.6
           2,120
7.1

Middle East
             796
6.9
           4,814
8.3
           8,387
8.5

Asia / Pacific
             967
1.6
           6,197
14.0
         10,538
25.1

Total
           7,980
4.2
         47,813
6.9
         82,229
11.2

Air Transport Movements
 Jul 2024
% Change
Jan to
Jul 2024
% Change
Aug 2023 to
Jul 2024
% Change

Market

UK
           3,096
17.5
         21,067
14.4
         35,020
16.8

EU
         18,481
3.9
       119,133
6.7
       202,827
8.4

Non-EU Europe
           3,459
1.6
         24,618
7.5
         41,611
9.7

Africa
           1,178
-5.1
           8,721
-4.1
         15,163
1.8

North America
           8,275
-0.7
         52,824
1.4
         91,941
6.8

Latin America
             705
-2.5
           5,315
3.6
           8,940
6.6

Middle East
           2,711
3.4
         17,693
2.5
         30,277
5.2

Asia / Pacific
           3,651
-0.7
         25,113
9.8
         43,383
18.6

Total
         41,556
2.8
       274,484
5.8
       469,162
9.2

Cargo
(Metric Tonnes)
 Jul 2024
% Change
Jan to
Jul 2024
% Change
Aug 2023 to
Jul 2024
% Change

Market

UK
               30
-60.5
             345
-2.2
             590
27.9

EU
           6,074
-22.9
         52,241
-3.3
         94,307
-0.6

Non-EU Europe
           3,225
-16.3
         23,213
-1.3
         40,681
-1.1

Africa
           7,854
25.7
         52,408
19.8
         87,274
17.8

North America
         51,611
21.5
       343,130
15.2
       590,012
11.8

Latin America
           4,695
8.4
         31,248
9.1
         53,421
9.8

Middle East
         21,131
-4.3
       154,069
6.6
       271,242
9.2

Asia / Pacific
         33,422
6.7
       236,301
25.0
       404,370
25.9

Total
       128,042
8.3
       892,954
14.2
    1,541,898
13.7

The article Heathrow chases summer gold for UK plc as it smashes all-time records first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.