Strong performance over Jubilee holiday shows regulator the value of focus on passenger service

 

• 5.3m passengers travelled through Heathrow in May, 79% of 2019 levels, in line with our revised forecast.

• Close coordination and planning with airport partners meant that passengers got away on their flights from Heathrow over the busy Jubilee half term. Check-in generally worked well, with more passengers checking in online and despite May being our busiest month since March 2020, 90% of passengers were through security in less than 10 minutes. No more flights were cancelled at short notice than on any normal day and Border Force performed well.

• As part of our longstanding ramp up plan, we will reopen Terminal 4 on 14 June and 30 airlines will move in ahead of the summer peak.  We are increasing our own security, engineering and services teams, and supporting other employers across the airport with their recruitment.   

• While we rebuild capacity from the pandemic, resources remains tight, in line with other airports in the UK and Europe. We are working closely with airlines and handlers to match supply and demand.  This has made the difference at Heathrow in being able to get passengers away over Easter and the Jubilee half term and is now being adopted by other major hubs in Europe.

• Recent criticism of service levels across the sector demonstrates that our plan to maintain high levels of passenger service during the H7 regulatory period is the right one for consumers, and that the last thing passengers want is a cut price plan that leads to the cancelled holidays, stress and “hassle” seen at other airports.  We urge the CAA to protect service and resilience levels, incentivise investment and maintain affordable private financing, all of which can be achieved for less than the equivalent of a 2% increase in ticket prices.

 

Heathrow CEO, John Holland-Kaye said:

“I’m immensely proud of the way my team has worked with airlines and other partners to ensure passengers got away during the Jubilee half term.  We continue to make good progress with our plans to ramp up capacity and are working closely with airlines and government to keep supply and demand in balance as we grow, so that passengers can travel through Heathrow this summer with confidence. We now need a regulatory settlement from the CAA that protects service and resilience levels, incentivises investment and maintains affordable private financing. Failure to invest risks degrading passenger experience at a time when it has never been more important for operations to ramp up smoothly.”

 

Traffic Summary
May 2022
Terminal Passengers (000s)	May 2022	% Change	Jan to May 2022	% Change	Jun 2021 to May 2022	% Change
Market
UK	325	224.4	1,288	292.9	2,728	220.0
EU	1,996	674.0	6,893	686.6	13,275	217.0
Non-EU Europe	367	579.7	1,651	604.5	2,954	221.3
Africa	227	320.4	1,090	265.0	1,832	183.3
North America	1,403	1500.6	4,540	1267.8	7,546	721.6
Latin America	138	1385.2	657	1716.0	1,034	572.4
Middle East	528	973.9	2,414	607.5	4,373	290.7
Asia / Pacific	357	466.6	1,548	247.9	2,842	153.3
Total	5,341	691.1	20,081	594.5	36,583	268.8
Air Transport Movements	May 2022	% Change	Jan to May 2022	% Change	Jun 2021 to May 2022	% Change
Market
UK	2,766	146.5	10,995	173.8	24,194	144.4
EU	16,297	381.3	59,427	392.8	119,928	140.8
Non-EU Europe	2,979	329.9	13,222	354.7	24,747	152.2
Africa	1,224	121.3	5,714	100.4	10,749	67.4
North America	7,030	178.3	25,348	124.3	48,820	89.9
Latin America	625	334.0	3,107	453.8	5,703	183.3
Middle East	2,154	87.5	9,575	69.6	20,972	51.5
Asia / Pacific	2,044	24.5	10,348	19.8	24,675	17.1
Total	35,119	213.1	137,736	187.1	279,788	101.9
Cargo (Metric Tonnes)	May 2022	% Change	Jan to May 2022	% Change	Jun 2021 to May 2022	% Change
Market
UK	5	-76.2	36	-55.5	175	37.6
EU	8,788	-20.6	45,807	-9.3	116,473	16.7
Non-EU Europe	3,141	-46.3	16,387	-42.2	55,633	-9.4
Africa	7,263	19.0	37,627	6.7	79,964	2.4
North America	45,163	9.1	229,679	23.0	524,714	31.4
Latin America	3,670	113.0	15,965	161.4	33,349	21.7
Middle East	19,833	0.2	90,919	-0.4	228,220	3.8
Asia / Pacific	26,503	-16.0	139,310	-10.5	386,160	10.3
Total	114,364	-2.7	575,732	3.9	1,424,688

Tags:  Heathrow Airport