July Busiest Month Ever for Heathrow

Brits eager to escape what has turned out to be a disappointing summer at home have meant that Heathrow has experienced its busiest month on record.

July saw 6.9 million travellers pass through Heathrow, making it not only a record month for the airport, but also gave it seven of its top ten busiest days on record, giving an indication of the unprecedented demand for flights out of the London hub. The month not only broke records for passenger numbers but also generated record flight seat load factors with 84.7 per cent of seats being filled on departing flights.

“The growth in passenger traffic at Heathrow in July is good news for UK jobs, tourism and growth,” commented Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow operator BAA. “Heathrow’s unique role in linking the UK to the world’s emerging markets is vital to Britain’s economic recovery. Heathrow’s performance was also good news for the thousands of families setting off on their summer holiday,” he added.

The July holiday rush saw families and groups of friends booking cheap flights to Malaga and other popular Spanish resorts, as well as flights to Orlando, Tampa and city breaks in New York and LA. Cheap flights to Tenerife and the other Canary Islands, as well as to France and Turkey also proved popular with Brits departing from Heathrow. The airport hit passenger numbers of more than 68.5 million over the past 12 months, adding to BAA’s recent successes with all six of its UK airports.

Stanstead, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Aberdeen all helped to give BAA airports a total passenger figure of 11 million in July – an increase of 0.8 per cent compared with July 2010.