Business and traffic commentary August 2019

07.00 11th September 2019

Heathrow lands its busiest day ever as airport invests in sustainable growth

·; A record breaking 262,000 passengers travelled through Heathrow on the airport's busiest day ever on the 4th August.

·; A total of 7.7 million passengers travelled through the capacity constrained hub airport, with figures up 0.1% on last year.

·; Africa saw the most growth last month, up 6% compared to 2018, with the market continuing to benefit from the new route to Durban and increased aircraft sizes on flights to Nigeria. Domestic flights were also up 2.7%, with more passengers using the services to Newquay, Guernsey and Isle of Man at a peak time for staycations.

·; More than 126,000 metric tonnes of cargo made its way through the UK's largest port by value. The top markets for cargo growth were Africa (+4.2%) and the Middle East (+1.8%).

·; SAS took the top spot in the 'Fly Quiet and Green' league table for Q2 for its work on tackling late and early flights, benefitting the airport's local communities and improvements to operational performance.

·; Heathrow and the Department for Trade also launched this year's World of Opportunity competition, inviting SMEs up and down the country to apply for grants to help fund exporting.

·; An expansion consultation event was held almost every day last month. These events give local communities the opportunity engage with the airport's expansion plans, ask the experts about the project's impacts and learn about the measures to help mitigate them.

·; Following Heathrow's announcement to invest £50 million in cutting edge CT scanners, the Department for Transport unveiled plans for all major UK airports to implement the technology which could bring an end to the 100ml liquid restrictions and potentially end the need for liquids bags, reducing the amount of single-use plastic attributed to aviation.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said:

"We are continuing to invest in future proofing Heathrow. The airport will be a testbed for ground-breaking technology like our new CT scanners to ensure that our passenger experience remains world class as numbers continue to grow. Using new technology and innovation as we deliver expansion will also demonstrate our global leadership on sustainable travel."