Europe"s Busiest Hub: London Heathrow Airport Regains The Crown

The airport had dropped to 10th place last year before enjoying a steady recovery this summer.

Heathrow Airport has reclaimed its place as Europe's busiest airport following a resurgent summer. The airport handled 5.8 million passengers in September and 18 million overall for the summer to reclaim its crown.

Heathrow Airport back on top

Having lost its position as Europe's busiest airport over the COVID pandemic, London Heathrow Airport (LHR) is once again on top after welcoming 18 million passengers over the summer. London's premier airport handled almost 5.8 million travelers last month and has now exceeded 44 million passengers over the first nine months of 2022.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said,

"Heathrow has grown more in the past 12 months than any airport in Europe and we’ve delivered a great passenger experience to the vast majority of travelers. I’m proud of the way our team has worked with airlines and their ground handlers to get 18 million passengers successfully away this summer."

LHR managed this despite introducing a cap on the number of daily departing passengers in July to improve the passenger experience. Staff shortages across the aviation industry led to airports being unprepared for the sharp rise in air travel demand this summer.

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Heathrow Airport added,

"Passenger service levels, which had been higher than any European hub between January and June, dipped at the beginning of July as passenger demand started to exceed the overall capacity of the aviation ecosystem, but improved significantly after we introduced a departing passenger cap, which successfully kept supply and demand in balance. As a result, the vast majority of passengers traveling through Heathrow this summer had a very good experience."

Still below pre-pandemic levels

The 5.8 million passengers handled last month is still 15% short of September 2019, but Heathrow is slowly catching up to its pre-pandemic capacity. Last month's figure is more than double what LHR managed in September 2021, while its January-September figure of over 44 million passengers is a 335% increase from 2021.

The airport's North American market has seen the greatest resurgence this year. Over 11 million transatlantic passengers have passed through Heathrow in 2022, a huge 658% improvement from last year. EU travelers made up the largest contingent of passengers at over 15 million so far this year.

Heathrow claims that resource levels have been steadily improving over the summer after blaming its capacity cap on airlines' failure to hire enough ground staff. By August, LHR had added 1,300 security staff, enabling 88% of passengers to navigate through security in less than 20 minutes.

An uncertain winter

With its daily departure cap set to expire on October 29th, Heathrow Airport should be optimistic about the upcoming Winter season. However, the airport warns that its demand outlook is uncertain, citing "growing economic headwinds, a new wave of COVID and the escalating situation in Ukraine."

The peak Christmas period is expected to be "very busy," with the airport adding that it is "working with our airline partners to develop a more targeted mechanism, which protects passenger service during peak periods."