Business and traffic commentary Jul 2024

Heathrow

12 August 2024

 

Heathrow chases summer gold for UK plc as it smashes all-time records

·      Almost 8 million passengers travelled through Heathrow in July, seeing the UK's hub retain gold spot on the podium as the busiest airport in Europe in the first half of the year - ahead of Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris Charles de Gaulle by millions of passengers  

·      Before July 2024, Heathrow had never surpassed 1.8m passengers in a week. This has now been achieved three weeks in a row (08 - 28 July), as the airport continues to break its own records  

·      Heathrow saw six of its busiest ever departure days in the week the schools broke up for the summer holiday period (from 22 July), with over 140k direct departing passengers and almost 140k bags leaving the airport daily. Close collaboration with our partners meant that the airport has performed well with no material impacts on flights from the recent global IT outage or illegal protest activity  

·      Venice and Larnaca proved popular destinations for those jetting off for some summer sun, as Doha and Dublin joined Dubai and JFK as the latest routes with one million passengers travelling to and from Heathrow this year. There were also big boosts for Orlando and many other US destinations such as Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Dallas 

·      Heathrow experienced an 8% increase in cargo tonnage in July 2024 compared to July 2023. This strong performance underscores Heathrow's position as the UK's leading air cargo hub, boosting the UK economy, helping drive exports, tourism and investment across the country 

·      While Heathrow continues to attract new routes and record passenger numbers, the latest data following the introduction of the ETA shows that Heathrow has lost 90,000 transfer passengers on routes operating to and from the seven countries included in the scheme, since its introduction in 2023. This is devastating for our hub competitiveness. We urge Government to review the inclusion of airside transit passengers, every little bit of extra competitiveness that Government can deliver for aviation will help deliver vital growth for the whole of the UK economy 

Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said:  

"Team GB's performance in Paris has been an inspiration to the nation and to Team Heathrow. In July, we were smashing a passenger record almost every single day and we're chasing down our never before seen goal of serving 8 million passengers in a single month. I'm proud that although there were a few potential challenges which could have caused us to stumble, our team remained focused on the prize of making every journey better and delivered a medal-winning start to the summer getaway." 

Traffic Summary
July 2024
Terminal Passengers (000s)	Jul 2024	% Change	Jan to Jul 2024	% Change	Aug 2023 to Jul 2024	% Change
Market
UK	409	14.7	2,676	10.6	4,499	15.3
EU	2,768	7.7	15,929	7.7	27,297	10.4
Non-EU Europe	536	5.2	3,295	8.5	5,586	11.3
Africa	279	-11.4	1,927	-7.8	3,435	0.1
North America	2,048	0.5	11,715	3.6	20,366	8.6
Latin America	178	0.3	1,261	4.6	2,120	7.1
Middle East	796	6.9	4,814	8.3	8,387	8.5
Asia / Pacific	967	1.6	6,197	14.0	10,538	25.1
Total	7,980	4.2	47,813	6.9	82,229	11.2
Air Transport Movements	Jul 2024	% Change	Jan to Jul 2024	% Change	Aug 2023 to Jul 2024	% Change
Market
UK	3,096	17.5	21,067	14.4	35,020	16.8
EU	18,481	3.9	119,133	6.7	202,827	8.4
Non-EU Europe	3,459	1.6	24,618	7.5	41,611	9.7
Africa	1,178	-5.1	8,721	-4.1	15,163	1.8
North America	8,275	-0.7	52,824	1.4	91,941	6.8
Latin America	705	-2.5	5,315	3.6	8,940	6.6
Middle East	2,711	3.4	17,693	2.5	30,277	5.2
Asia / Pacific	3,651	-0.7	25,113	9.8	43,383	18.6
Total	41,556	2.8	274,484	5.8	469,162	9.2
Cargo (Metric Tonnes)	Jul 2024	% Change	Jan to Jul 2024	% Change	Aug 2023 to Jul 2024	% Change
Market
UK	30	-60.5	345	-2.2	590	27.9
EU	6,074	-22.9	52,241	-3.3	94,307	-0.6
Non-EU Europe	3,225	-16.3	23,213	-1.3	40,681	-1.1
Africa	7,854	25.7	52,408	19.8	87,274	17.8
North America	51,611	21.5	343,130	15.2	590,012	11.8
Latin America	4,695	8.4	31,248	9.1	53,421	9.8
Middle East	21,131	-4.3	154,069	6.6	271,242	9.2
Asia / Pacific	33,422	6.7	236,301	25.0	404,370	25.9
Total	128,042	8.3	892,954	14.2	1,541,898	13.7

 

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