London Heathrow Airport has released its passenger figures for the first half of the year, showing a 42 per cent increase on last year for the same period.

According to Heathrow, 37 million passengers used the airport in the first six months of this year, up to June 30, 2023. For the same period last year this figure was 26.1 million – a 42.1 per cent change.

As reported earlier this month, the UK hub’s passenger numbers reached 7 million in June alone – up by 17.5
per cent on June 2022’s figures and only just behind June 2019’s traffic
of 7.2 million passengers.

Between July 2022 and June 2023, Heathrow’s passenger numbers reached 72.6 million, which was an increase of 74.5 per cent on the preceding 12-month period, although still 8.2 million passengers below pre-Covid levels.

Heathrow is also welcoming a new CEO this autumn after John
Holland-Kaye announced his resignation in June. He will be replaced by
Thomas Woldbye, group CEO at Copenhagen Airports. Holland-Kaye will
remain at the helm over the summer period.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said of the passenger figures: “The
summer getaway has got off to a great start, thanks to planning and
close collaboration with airlines and their ground handlers. I am
immensely proud of what we have achieved as a team in the last nine
years, transforming Heathrow into a world-class airport that Britain can
be proud of. Heathrow is now a leader in sustainability, with a diverse
culture that reflects our local community and can attract the best
talent from around the world.”

Earlier this year passengers were bracing themselves for a series of
summer strikes as an industrial dispute between the airport and its
baggage handlers escalated, but in June the strikes were called off after security staff
working at London Heathrow agreed to a pay deal with the airport. 

According to the ACI World data set, Heathrow has made the biggest leap in the top 20 busiest airports in the world rankings, jumping from 54th to 8th in one year.

This can be attributed to when all travel restrictions were lifted by the UK Government in March 2021, after two years of impediment.  According to the ACI World data set, Heathrow saw 61,614,230 passengers in 2022, compared with 19,395,287 in 2021.

The airport is currently awaiting the outcome of the Competitions and Markets Authority appeal on passenger charges, which will be announced in October.