Business and traffic commentary February 2017

07.00 10th March 2017

2017 off to a flying start with Heathrow's best-ever February

§ In its best February performance to-date, Heathrow welcomed a record 5.27m passengers (+5.5% when adjusted to remove last year's leap day) alongside surging cargo volumes with 127,000 metric tonnes travelling through the UK's largest port in just 28 days (+4.4%)

§ Larger, fuller, quieter and cleaner aircraft continued to drive Heathrow passenger growth in February as a more resilient UK economy saw travel demand pushed higher than expected

§ Emerging markets contributed to Heathrow's strong February cargo performance, with volumes up to Brazil (+10%), India (+5%) and China (+4.2%) alongside healthy growth to North America (+7%) and the Middle East (+8%)

§ Passengers ranked Heathrow as the best major airport in Europe for the second year running at the annual Airports Council International awards

§ Heathrow unveiled an ambitious new sustainability leadership strategy - Heathrow 2.0 - aimed at making the airport a centre of excellence for sustainable aviation

§ Planning for Heathrow expansion is firmly underway as announced it would host six procurement events this year from Devon to Scotland in addition to its successful London Business Summit all aimed at increasing the numbers of SMEs in the airport's supply chain

§ Over 6,000 local young people attended Heathrow's 10th annual Jobs & Careers Fair meeting face-to-face with employers and learning about the wide variety of career and training opportunities on offer at the airport

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said:

"Heathrow is off to a flying start in 2017 - we're delivering the best service of any major airport in Europe to record numbers of passengers and boosting British exports with record cargo volumes. Our new sustainability leadership strategy will make Heathrow a centre of excellence for sustainable aviation and planning for expansion is firmly underway with SMEs across Britain lining up to help us deliver it."