Article
Heathrow enjoys busiest September ever
• Owner BAA says 6.2m people flew from Heathrow last month, a rise of 7.6% on September 2009
• Cargo exceeding pre-recession levels, with 123,680 tonnes shipped from airport last month
A departure board at Heathrow airport. Owner BAA said there were 'encouraging signs that business people are travelling again' following the disruption from the ash cloud. Photograph: Graeme Robertson
Heathrow, the UK's main airport, has enjoyed its busiest September ever, with long-haul journeys to Brazil, Russia and China seeing strong growth.
Airport operator BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, said it benefited from the reinstatement of flights that had been removed from schedules and merged with others due to the recession. There were also "encouraging signs that business people are travelling again", following bad weather and the volcanic ash cloud which caused major disruption in the spring.
As Heathrow continued to recover from the recession, 6.22 million people flew from the airport last month, an increase of 7.6% over September 2009, the largest year-on-year increase since July 2004.
The most popular routes were New York (241,746), Dubai (153,319) and Dublin (134,500).
The BRIC countries were also popular, with Brazil rising 27.1% to 31,546 passengers, China up 10.3% to 58,330 and Russia 23.7% ahead to 70,021. India fell by 0.3% to 178,607.
European passenger numbers also continued to grow, climbing 11.7% to 2,35 million. The most popular routes were to Heathrow's main competitors, which are all hub airports: Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris .
Cargo imports and exports continued to beat pre-recession levels, rising 11.85% across the group to 144,469 tonnes. Heathrow, the UK's busiest freight port by value, shipped 123,680 tonnes, up 12.2% on last September. Heathrow is particularly important in the exports of low-weight, high-value goods: pharmaceuticals worth £800m, for example, were exported to the US via Heathrow last year.
"Heathrow's record September figures underline that transport links are vital to our economy," said Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive. "The growth reflects an improved outlook for our airline customers and an increase in business confidence, as shown by cargo figures which continue to outperform the pre-recession peak."
BAA welcomed comments from foreign secretary William Hague last week, who pledged support for "giving our country the myriad of connections which will allow 21st century Britons to prosper and succeed".
Across all of BAA's UK airports – which include Edinburgh, Southampton, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stansted – 9,988,178 passengers travelled during September, up 3.3% on last year.
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User Comments
james911
11 October 2010 11:09AM
Need another runway / airport. Everyone else is building them: Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt have at least 4 runways. Only Britain wants to enter the next decade with inadequate infrastructure; only British people think high-speed rail and air travel are mutually exclusive. We can reduce carbon emissions by other mean.
viper217
11 October 2010 1:35PM
Why shouldn't it?
There isn't a recession in London or the South East Toryland
bristoltraffic
11 October 2010 3:49PM
We can reduce carbon emissions by other mean.
Oh, what means will that be then?
Note also that countries like France, Germany, Spain and Belgium have high speed rail -flight is for the long distance work, not quick trips within the country, unlike the UK.
james911
12 October 2010 12:08AM
Oh, what means will that be then?
Start with cars -- the biggest man-made source of CO2. Strengthen incentives for fuel-efficient engines and promote electric and hybrid cars.
thrawnpop
12 October 2010 6:21AM
with flights to Brazil, Russia and China seeing strong growth
surely that should read "flights from Brazil, Russia and China"...
Lafonte2
12 October 2010 11:55AM
OK - stand by for U-turn on 3rd runway by Cameron (announced by a Lib-Dem of course). Goodbye Sipson.
dominho
12 October 2010 12:47PM
Need another runway / airport. Everyone else is building them: Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt have at least 4 runways. Only Britain wants to enter the next decade with inadequate infrastructure; only British people think high-speed rail and air travel are mutually exclusive. We can reduce carbon emissions by other mean.
Yeah, but you're forgetting that London has 5 airports; it isn't just about Heathrow. Why do people always forget that? I live in the Netherlands and Amsterdam is the only major international airport for the entire country (and arguably parts of Belgium considering you can get from Antwerp to Schiphol in about 40mins). Frankfurt is the same. In total London has around 6 runways, excl. private airports. Be interesting to see what the comparisons are between total runways of cities and not airports.
Personally, London should just really have 2 airports (one 4 runway the other 2), one truly global hub and another for European and general short-haul distances. Then they can knock down Heathrow (in a terrible location) and all others bar Gatwick and build a proper airport, instead of spending billions just bringing them up to date, and in which they are still a mess (look at the distribution of terminals at Heathrow).
Jasonic
11 October 2010 11:06AM
good numbers to Dublin from LHR, considering that FR fly to STN, LGW & LTN also, plus EI to LGW and Cityjet to City airport....