Heathrows passenger numbers continue climbing in January
Heathrow saw 5.9 million passengers travel through it as Januarys figures increased by 2.1%, marking the airport's 27th consecutive record month.
Africa and East Asia continue to be amongst the best performing regions, up 9.7% and 5.6% respectively.
The African nations to make the biggest gains were Morocco (+40%), Ethiopia (27%), Nigeria (13%) and South Africa (12%). In East Asia, China saw growth of 27%, due to the continued interest in new services to the country.
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “2019 is off to a stellar start, with more passengers choosing to use Heathrow because of our improved service and lower costs.”
Over 130,000 metric tonnes of cargo travelled through Heathrow on the way to their final destinations in January. The best performing markets for cargo were Africa, with growth of 8.9%, and Latin America which saw an increase of 8.8% largely driven by an increase in movements to Brazil.
Figures from the ACI show that Heathrow remains Europe’s busiest airport, even though growth continues to be hampered the airport’s current capacity constraints. The ACI also reports that aviation capacity issues are becoming more widespread and evident across Europe.
Heathrow also kicked off their eight-week long consultation on Airspace & Future Operations – asking the public to help shape the airport’s future airspace design – both for the existing two runway airport and as part of the proposed expansion.
In January, Heathrow became Britain’s first airport to launch a Shared Apprentice Scheme in construction, whilst NATS and Heathrow announced the start of a trial which aims to understand whether artificial intelligence could be used to help regain the landing capacity lost during times of low cloud or reduced visibility.