The airport, the UK’s busiest, welcomed 6.4 million passengers in April, its numbers bolstered by the Easter break and the coronation of King Charles III. And despite strike action, Heathrow said more than 90% of passengers cleared security within 10 minutes in April.
The biggest rebound in April passenger numbers came from the Pacific Asia region, from which passengers more than doubled year-on-year to 705,000 (+105%). The second biggest rebound was from North America, from which passenger numbers increased by 40% to 1.68 million.
"There are early indications that passenger growth may be levelling off, with recovery now stable at 93-95% of 2019 levels across each of the first four months of this year," said Heathrow in an update on its April traffic issued on Thursday (11 May).
Heathrow adopted a Royal garden party theme for the Coronation, with brass bands, guardsmen in the terminals and free Coronation shortbread, while the ceremony was shown in full on the big screens in Terminal 5.
Other developments highlighted by Heathrow in April included new Loganir flights to Derry, Dundee, Sumburgh and Kirkwall, increasing the airport’s domestic network by 50%. In addition, the airport expects by the end of May to have seven departures to Chinese cities after the country reopened its borders earlier this year.
In addition, the airport said it welcomed a roadmap set out by Sustainable Aviation setting out in more details how aviation can continue to grow while working towards achieving the UK’s net-zero 2050 ambitions, adding it echoed calls from the industry for government to set out a policy framework to secure sustainable aviation fuel at scale and ramp up production in the UK.
John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow chief executive, said the airport had made "tremendous progresses" in the 12 months since Covid travel restrictions were lifted, praising Heathrow’s employees for their efforts.
