Record Winter Figures for UK Airports Heathrow

Heathrow welcomed a record 5.72 million passengers in November, up 2.5 per cent on last year, alongside a 4.4 per cent growth in cargo volumes.

At the same time, London Stansted recorded its busiest ever November as over 1.7 million passengers passed through the terminal during the month, an increase of 2.3 per cent over the same month last year.

Emerging market passenger growth was strong at Heathrow, with Mexico, China and the Middle East all up eight per cent – evidence that demand to fly from the UK remains strong

At Stansted, the airport’s rolling annual passenger total now stands at over 24.17million, up 7.8 per cent over the previous 12 month period.

Passenger growth continues to be driven by record high load factors – the number of passengers on each flight – with an average 87.3 per cent of available seats occupied on each flight during the period, another record for the month of November at Stansted.

Larger, quieter and more efficient aircraft continued to be a driver for growth in passenger volumes at Heathrow, which are up 0.7 per cent year-to-date in 2016 as airlines deploy more and more new generation Airbus A380s, A350s and Boeing 787s at the airport.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “With record passenger volumes and strong cargo growth in November, Heathrow is delivering for Britain’s economy.”

The volume of cargo handled at Stansted continued its upward trend with nearly 23,000 tonnes of goods passing through the specialist facilities, up 4.3 per cent on November 2015.

Stansted Airport chief executive, Andrew Cowan, said: “The first full month of the airline’s winter flight schedules produced another solid performance in terms of passenger growth and the busiest November for the airport on record.

“Strong average load factors continue to drive the increase in passenger volumes while the airport’s significant and high-value cargo operation also recorded another positive month of growth.”