Chicago joins London Heathrow's 'Millionaire Club' amid record-breaking passenger numbers

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Chicago joins London Heathrow's 'Millionaire Club' amid record-breaking passenger numbers

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Airbus A380 | Airbus

By Sky Industry News

Dec 12, 2024

London Heathrow Airport has experienced its busiest November on record, marking a significant milestone with several routes surpassing the one million passenger mark for the year. Among these routes is Chicago O'Hare International Airport, which joins Heathrow's 'Millionaire Club'—a designation for routes that serve over a million passengers annually.

According to Heathrow, 25 routes are expected to reach this milestone in 2024, an increase from 24 last year. In November alone, eight routes hit the million-passenger threshold. These include Abu Dhabi, Chicago, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Mumbai, Paris CDG, Singapore, and Zürich.

Data from Cirium reveals that the Chicago route is served by American Airlines, British Airways, and United Airlines. Together they have operated 6,011 flights this year on this corridor.

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Heathrow's overall passenger numbers for November reached 6.501 million—a 6.1% increase compared to the same month last year. The total number of passengers from January to November was 76.785 million, reflecting a similar growth rate of 6%. Over a rolling 12-month period ending in November 2024, Heathrow handled 83.484 million passengers—a rise of 6.5% compared to the previous year.

Cargo tonnage also saw an increase of 5.4% in November due to "greater belly hold cargo capacity on passenger aircraft," according to Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye. He stated: "This year has been all about providing high levels of service for record amounts of passengers at Heathrow."

Looking ahead to December, Heathrow anticipates it will be its busiest December ever with a notable rise in Christmas Day travel—projected at a 21% increase from last year despite only an 8.5% rise in seat capacity.

In preparation for the holiday season, Heathrow has introduced festive initiatives such as "seasonal crafts with Christmas Fairies" and opportunities for travelers to meet Santa Claus or take photos with Bjorn the polar bear.