Figures reveal the UK’s busiest airport has welcomed over 46million passengers already this year, up 1.4% on the same time last year. Heathrow welcomed 7.75 million passengers in July, helping to maintain steady growth similar to 2018 numbers.
New flights to Newquay, Isle of Man and Guernsey announced this summer continue to boost domestic passenger numbers, up 3.6% this month. Africa saw the highest long-haul passenger growth, up 5.2%.
Over 130,000 metric tonnes of cargo, including vital pharmaceuticals, technical equipment and Scottish salmon, passed through Heathrow in July.
The airport has called on UN’s aviation body ICAO to set targets for the use of sustainable fuels in aviation and the government to invest some of the nearly £4 billion annual revenue raised from Air Passenger Duty to scale-up its production.
Heathrow launched a new bus and RailAir service from Guildford to Heathrow, adding to the range of public transport options available to passengers and colleagues to get to Heathrow by sustainable means. The new service has already taken hundreds of vehicles off the road since launching.
Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye said: “The masterplan for the UK’s newest runway is set to be finalised within 18 months’ time and it was great to see businesses up and down UK recently write to the new Prime Minister highlighting their support for this vital project and the need to get on and deliver it. We are clear that expansion at Heathrow will not come at a cost to the environment, which is why we are working with the industry and government to develop environmental targets that will ensure growth is managed sustainably both now and with expansion.”
Also, the Court of Appeal has allowed four days for an appeal hearing which will start on Monday 21 October. There will be four appeals which will be heard at the same time from four councils who believe the government made legal errors in the steps leading up to the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) which gave government approval for expansion at Heathrow, and therefore it should be quashed.
