London Heathrow Airport – traffic, financials, regulation, charging, and Britain's standing

London's Heathrow Airport is a microcosm of the global primary gateway/hub airport economy, sitting in the middle of the world on the meridian that dictates time zones everywhere else and representing (for now) the world's premier financial market. That helps explain why London has five other commercial airports and the largest air passenger throughput of any city, anywhere.

But Heathrow's glory days seemed well behind it when the COVID-19 pandemic made a greater impact than it did on many of its peer airports in Europe, aggravated by poor 'post-COVID' planning.

Yet Heathrow dragged itself off the ropes to record a 218% increase in passengers and 140% increase in revenues in 2022, and with positive results across the financial spectrum.

Now, with Britain in an economic mess, the world teetering on the edge of financial collapse, political pressures to 'level up' the rest of England, no certainty on the airport's third runway, and an unholy row over how much it can charge airlines that "can charge what they want" - Heathrow continues to live in what that (allegedly Chinese; actually American) saying described as "interesting times".