London Heathrow Achieves Record-Breaking 82 Million Passengers

The UK’s biggest airport, London Heathrow, has catered a record breaking number of passengers in a 12-month period, serving nearly 82 million passengers. The airport served 7.2 million passengers in the month of May. The passenger traffic has never crossed the 7 million mark up until now. This increasing trend of airport traffic is said to continue in the coming summer months, adding up to about 30 million passengers. Heathrow airport is spacious enough to accommodate some of the largest commercial aircraft. 

Passenger Traffic throughout the Years in Heathrow

Since the early 2000’s, passenger traffic in Heathrow airport has been steadily increasing. From 2002 to 2012, the number of passengers per year was around 63 to 69 million. It crossed the 70 million mark in late 2012. After that, the passenger count crossed the 80 million mark before 2020.

The pandemic caused all people worldwide to stop travelling and stay at home. These were the hardest times for all airlines, as the situation was unexpected. The sheer magnitude of the effect caused many airlines to file for bankruptcy. Only major airlines that were doing well for themselves were able to scrape by. The reasons for this are that airlines never really bothered to save budget for an emergency spanning years. Even large airlines such as Heathrow barely managed to stay afloat as passenger traffic plummeted to about 20 million during the pandemic years of 2020 to the end of 2021.

The effects of the pandemic were less severe from the year 2022. More people began to travel as the quarantine restrictions were lifted. This caused passenger traffic to increase to about 65 million in the post-COVID years of 2022–2023. 

As the number of passengers is expected to increase, the success achieved by the airline continues to be more impressive.

Statements and Controversies about the record-breaking number at Heathrow

The rapid increase in the number of passengers has evidently put the airport in a better position than most. The CEO of London Heathrow Airport, Thomas Woldbye, has said the following about the matter:

“We have a winning team at Heathrow which has proven that we have put Covid firmly behind us. Thanks to their extraordinary efforts we are now giving record numbers of people the chance to connect smoothly with the world. Supporting 81 million journeys doesn’t just help families to make wonderful holiday memories, importantly it is about the vital trade and business links a hub like Heathrow creates for the UK’s economy.”

Although the success of the airline is credited to the hardworking team in Heathrow, there have been a fair share of controversies throughout the years. Notably, the airline had several complaints from disabled people for lack of service. People who require a wheelchair for mobility were reported to have been left stranded or their expensive provisional equipment being lost in the cargo’s of Heathrow.

The airline has also expressed its disappointment with the lack of policies from the UK government. Lack of tax-free shopping and visas for transiting passengers is necessary for airlines, as it helps them earn more. This is expressed by Heathrow, as they have expressed their desire to encourage passengers to spend more on their airline.