Three of the UK’s four busiest airports have announced record passenger numbers for July. A total of 7.98 million passengers passed through London Heathrow in July, representing 238 travellers per minute.
Heathrow – the busiest airport in Europe – saw six of its busiest-ever departure days in the week many schools broke up for the summer holiday, from 22 July. On each of those days more than 140,000 direct departing passengers left the airport daily. Before July 2024, Heathrow had never surpassed 1.
8 million passengers in a week. That number was achieved three weeks in a row. The highest growth, year-on-year, was for domestic flights – up 14.
7 per cent. The former prime minister, Rishi Sunak, encouraged a shift from rail to air by halving Air Passenger Duty on flights within the UK. Heathrow’s two busiest routes, to New York JFK and Dubai, were joined by Doha and Dublin as the latest routes with one million passengers travelling to and from Heathrow this year.
The airport’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said: “In July, we were smashing a passenger record almost every single day and we’re chasing down our never before seen goal of serving eight million passengers in a single month.” The eight million figure might have been achieved were it not for what Heathrow says is the impact of a “devastating” decision to make transit passengers obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to fly through Heathrow. The last government brought in the requirement .