Heathrow passenger numbers surge in July

Heathrow said on Thursday that it has seen the largest rise in passenger numbers of any European airport over the last year, with more than 6.3m people using the airport in July, up 317.8% year-on-year.

Britain's busiest airport stated a recent cap on departing passenger numbers had delivered improvements to the passenger experience, with fewer last-minute flight cancellations, as well as better aircraft punctuality and baggage delivery.

Heathrow said recruitment for the peak summer period began in November 2021 and highlighted that it had hired an additional 1,300 recruits, with security resources back at pre-pandemic levels, enabling 88% of passengers to clear security within 20 minutes or less.

Border Force was also said to have "performed well" so far this summer, with Heathrow working to help it secure "sufficient" resources to serve the high number of passengers returning to the UK over the next few weeks.

Heathrow now expects roughly 16.0m to pass through its gates between July and September.

Chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: "Passengers are seeing better, more reliable journeys since the introduction of the demand cap. I want to thank all my colleagues across the airport for their amazing work in getting people away on their holidays. This has only been possible because of the collective and determined efforts of airport, airlines, and wider Team Heathrow teams."

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com