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Top foreign airlines increase presence at London Heathrow Airport

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Top foreign airlines increase presence at London Heathrow Airport
Policy
Webp heathrow
London Heathrow Airport | Official Website

London Heathrow Airport remains the busiest airport in the United Kingdom, with an average of 674 departures each day in August, according to Cirium Diio data. This figure is slightly lower than the same period last year. The airport stands out among major European airports for its widebody operations, averaging 221 seats per takeoff.

Currently, only three UK airlines—British Airways, Loganair, and Virgin Atlantic—operate from Heathrow. More than 70 foreign carriers are active at the airport, accounting for 297 of its daily departures, which represents about 44% of all flights. Four additional non-UK airlines are expected to begin service this winter.

Data shows that American Airlines leads the list of foreign operators at Heathrow in August with 24 daily departures. “American is in the unusual position of having more long-haul flights from Heathrow than any of its US hubs. Its presence would, of course, be less significant without its BA partnership,” according to Cirium data cited in the report. American’s operations have grown by 71% compared to a decade ago and by 14% since before the pandemic in August 2019.

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Lufthansa follows closely with up to 21 daily departures (excluding those operated by Eurowings), while United Airlines operates up to 20 daily flights from Heathrow. Other notable foreign carriers include Aer Lingus (up to 20 daily), SAS (up to 15 daily), SWISS (up to 12 daily), Eurowings (up to 13 daily), Delta Air Lines (up to ten daily), Air Canada (nine daily), and Qatar Airways (up to nine).

If Lufthansa’s wholly owned low-cost subsidiary Eurowings is included together with Lufthansa’s figures, they surpass American Airlines as the top foreign operator at Heathrow.

Air Canada continues to provide unique narrowbody service between Halifax and Heathrow using Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after previously operating via St John’s on Boeing 767-300ERs until March 2019. The current nonstop Halifax-Heathrow route stands out as Air Canada’s only remaining daytime Europe-bound flight due to factors such as short duration and point-to-point demand.

Among all non-UK airlines at Heathrow, Tunisair has become the least frequent operator with just one weekly A320neo departure on Tuesdays—a reduction attributed partly to a shift toward serving London Gatwick instead.

Capital Airlines and Uzbekistan Airways each operate twice-weekly services from Qingdao and Tashkent respectively; both also serve Gatwick alongside their limited presence at Heathrow.

Heathrow Airport continues as a key hub for international air travel with strong participation from foreign carriers amid ongoing changes in route offerings and frequencies.

Organizations Included in this History
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