Heathrow Airport has maintained its position as Europe's busiest airport throughout the first half of the year, setting new records in passenger traffic during July. An impressive figure of 8 million travellers used the West London hub in that month, surpassing major European airports such as Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
During the start of the school holidays, Heathrow experienced six of its busiest departure days on record, with more than 140,000 passengers leaving the airport. This achievement came despite July's widespread IT outage and environmental protests.
For the first time, Heathrow exceeded 1.8 million passengers in a single week and continued to do so for three consecutive weeks from 8 to 28 July, leading up to the Paris Olympic Games. There was a notable increase in travel to popular destinations like Venice, Dublin, and New York's JFK, particularly to US cities such as Orlando, San Francisco, and Chicago, indicating a surge in transatlantic travel.
Heathrow's Chief Executive, Thomas Woldbye, praised the airport's performance, stating that they were breaking passenger records almost daily and striving for the goal of serving 8 million passengers in a single month. He expressed pride in the team's focus and resilience despite challenges.
Despite the global IT outage leading to thousands of flight cancellations, Heathrow reported record-breaking figures. However, the airport is facing new bureaucracy with the implementation of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which now requires visa-exempt travellers from certain countries to apply for an online permit. This has resulted in a loss of around 90,000 transfer passengers since the ETA's introduction.
Heathrow has urged the government to reconsider the inclusion of airside transit passengers, emphasizing that any improvement in competitiveness will contribute to vital growth for the UK economy.