Heathrow increases flight connections to USA
Heathrow currently has more daily flights than ever before between the UK and USA as airlines switch capacity to North Atlantic routes and away from European and East Asian markets, which have been slower to recover.
Images courtesy Heathrow
In May alone 1.6m Heathrow passengers flew across the North Atlantic. One in four passengers flying between the USA and Europe in May passed through Heathrow thanks to the choice of destinations and frequency.
A total of 248 daily flights to and from Heathrow now connect Britain to 31 US destinations, building trade links with the UK’s most important export market. As well as having more flights to New York than any European hub (over 30 daily departures), Heathrow is the only hub with a direct flight to Cincinnati.
The benefits this brings through trade and tourism demonstrate that Heathrow remains critically important as the UK’s gateway to the world and it is urging the Government to reinstate Tax Free Shopping to let British businesses and the UK economy maximise the benefits from recovering markets, instead of losing out to neighbours in France, Italy and Spain, where visitors currently spend more than double they do here.
Passenger numbers at Heathrow in May were driven up to 6.7 million, driven by three bank holidays.
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “The unrivalled choice of destinations and high frequency to cities like New York make flights from Heathrow vital trade routes with the USA, Britain’s most important export market.
"We have delivered excellent service to passengers, with no cancellations, over eight days of strikes on the busiest days in May and do not anticipate cancellations as a result of strikes during the summer holiday getaway.”