Coronavirus causes sharp drop in Heathrow passengers

Heathrow warned of further declines in passenger numbers after the coronavirus outbreak caused the volume of travellers using Europe's biggest airport to drop by almost 5% in February.

Passenger numbers fell 4.8% to 5.4m in February, after adjusting for the extra leap year day, because of lower demand on Asian and European routes, Heathrow said. The volume of cargo passing through the airport also fell heavily, down 9.5% to 115,800 metric tonnes as the coronavirus outbreak affected world trade.

Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye said: "The threat of coronavirus is an increasing challenge for the UK and we are working day and night to ensure Britain's front door is open and safe for our people and passengers. We will continue to work with the government to limit the impacts this will have on UK plc."

The coronavirus outbreak has hit the aviation industry hard as consumers and businesses have limited flying and events worldwide have been cancelled. Flybe collapsed on 5 March as demand dropped and IAG's British Airways has cancelled all flights to and from Italy because of the virus.