More passengers choose Heathrow as Australia flights get bump
Trips to Australia spiked last month, helping to drive up the number of passengers at Heathrow for the 31st month in a row.
More than 6.7m passengers travelled through London’s biggest airport in May, it confirmed this morning.
The 1.4 per cent passenger growth was helped by flyers going to Oceania, with numbers spiking 10.8 per cent. It came as carrier Qantas crammed more people onto their planes.
East Asia was the second-best performer, growing passenger numbers 10.7 per cent, with new routes to China and Japan.
Flybe’s new flights to Newquay and Guernsey also helped boost domestic traffic 2.2 per cent.
Flyers from New Zealand and Australia started using the electronic gates at Heathrow last month. They were joined by others from the US, Canada, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
“With more countries making use of the eGates, we’re now able to offer passengers from key trading partners a world class experience at the border, showing that Britain is open for business,” said Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye.
“An expanded Heathrow will be key to strengthening these links and we are getting on with delivering our plan as quickly as possible to ensure the UK remains one of the world’s great trading nations as the country leaves the EU.”
Passenger figures to the EU, Heathrow’s most important market, dropped by 2.1 per cent to 2.4m. Its second markets, North America, grew by seven per cent, the airport revealed.