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Heathrow reports record passenger numbers driven by transatlantic travel surge

Heathrow reports record passenger numbers driven by transatlantic travel surge
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Thomas Woldbye Chief Executive officer at Heathrow Airport - Heathrow | Official Website

London Heathrow Airport (LHR) is continuing to enjoy a busy start to 2025, with February having seen more than 5.7 million passengers use the facility. The West London hub credits growth in transatlantic travel as having been a key factor in what was its busiest-ever February, as well as the 12th consecutive month with a daily average of more than 200,000 passengers.

All in all, 5.709 million passengers passed through the doors of the largest and busiest airport in the UK last month. While this represented a 1.5% decrease compared to last year, 2024 was a leap year with an extra day in the second month, meaning that, adjusted for leap years, 2025 saw the busiest February on record at Heathrow Airport. January and February's combined traffic was up by 2%.

There was even larger growth when it came to the 12-month period that ended in February 2025, with 84.096 million passengers using the airport during this spell. This represented a 4.8% annual increase and followed the news that 2024 was the busiest calendar year on record at London Heathrow. Thomas Woldbye, who has been serving as Chief Executive Officer at the airport since 2023, welcomed the continued growth but emphasized its sustainable importance, stating:

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"Even during a traditionally quiet month for aviation in February, we saw sustained and growing demand to fly and export through Heathrow," he said. "As the UK's gateway to growth, we must meet this increase in demand and do it without compromising our strategy to decarbonize and reduce noise impacts. While we welcome the progress that's been achieved alongside our partners, there's no complacency - reaching net zero as we grow remains vital."

In a statement released earlier today by London Heathrow Airport, it highlighted growing transatlantic demand as crucial to its recent growth. Indeed, February 2025 had seen "a .0% increase in traffic to he S nd anada." Last month data from Cirium showed there were more than ,000 departures one- way on routes to these countries with ritish irways accounting for over ,000 flights.

The leisure market also played an essential role thanks to seasonal trends with eathrow adding hat "there was spike n interest rom winter sunseekers or destinations across he aribbean taly nd reece." oad actors emained high on corporate routes s lights 'to global business hubs including elhi ubai umbai nd iyadh were consistently taking off wih he fewest empty seats.'

Elsewhere atin merica saw he largest year-on-year rowth wih he ,000 assengers hat lew hese routes o rom ondon eathrow epresenting ear-on- year ncrease f .4% hen examining his egion anuary ebruary ombined rowth rises o .1% ontrastingly loser home short-haul markets seeing slight recession although course extra day ast ebruary should actored domestic raffic down .7%

Heathrow emains famously congested acility wih strict slot controls just wo runways disposal although hird appears cards albeit shorter orm han initially planned espite challenges posed increased raffic levels such busy hub airport leased report hat "in umber late lights ell espite being busiest year ever "

s lluded oldbye airport aking role ecarbonizing air ravel other sustainability initiatives very seriously ind eathrow leased report hat "in area exposed higher levels aircraft noise db Lden² hrank compared arbon emissions already own y round certainly making good progress

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