Thanksgiving passengers give Heathrow US boost in busiest ever November
Heathrow enjoyed its busiest ever November this year, as Thanksgiving celebrations helped boost passenger growth to and from the US.
British Airways and Amercian Airlines brought in new routes to Pittsburgh and increased flights on other journeys.
Read more: Heathrow breaks the history books with over 80m passengers
Meanwhile, Delta and Virgin Atlantic also ramped up their flights to Boston and Detroit, and started flights to Las Vegas.
Passengers travelling to North America increased 5.6 per cent compared to the same period last year, with 1.4m people going through Heathrow to the region.
Meanwhile, UK passengers rose 8.7 per cent to 415,000, while EU passengers fell slightly, by 0.3 per cent, to 2.09m.
Overall, more than 6.2m people passed through Britain’s biggest airport last month, up two per cent year on year.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye, said: “Following a record breaking November, we are expecting this festive getaway to be the biggest yet as family and friends travel home.”
Meanwhile, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) was named the best airline based on noise and emissions performance at Heathrow in the third quarter. This was helped by the carrier’s introduction of Airbus A320neo planes.
Read more: Boris Johnson raises red flag over Heathrow and HS2
Holland-Kaye added: “As demand for air travel increases, we are working with the aviation and energy industries to decarbonise flight.
“We are accelerating our own plans to cut emissions from Heathrow airport operations and those will be carbon neutral from 2020.”
Main image credit: Heathrow