Heathrow traffic and business commentary May 2013

11-Jun-2013

Heathrow saw 6.1 million passengers in May, a 4.7% increase on May 2012. The average number of passengers on each flight rose to almost 152, equating to a load factor of 74.7%, up 1.1 percentage points. The average number of seats per aircraft was 202.9, up 3.8%.

The growth in passengers using Heathrow was across most markets. Transatlantic traffic was up 3.6%, with European short haul passengers up 6.9%, including double digit growth in Italy (+13.5%), France (+12.2%) and the Netherlands (+15.6%). Traffic to and from the BRIC economies was up 11.7%, with notable growth in India (+17.7%) and China (+13.7%).

Operations responded to the emergency landing on 24^th May by reopening the runway as quickly as possible and assisting the airlines with looking after their passengers. Overall passenger numbers do not appear to have been impacted by the operational disruption, however the average load factor and aircraft size is likely to be higher with passengers on cancelled services rebooked onto later flights.

Consistent with global trends, freight activity continued to decline, down 4.3%.

May also saw the publication of 'A quieter Heathrow', which set out Heathrow's commitments to reducing aircraft noise while safeguarding the UK's connectivity. It included a range of new commitments on noise which include publicly ranking airlines on 'noise performance', trialling new departure routes with NATS and proposing a significant increase in fines for airlines that break noise limits.

Chief Executive for Heathrow, Colin Matthews, said:

'May saw another rise in the number of passengers travelling through Heathrow. More and more of them are being carried by newer, quieter aircraft which we incentivise to use the airport. This month we released 'A Quieter Heathrow', which showed that even though the number of flights has almost doubled since the 1970s, fewer people are now affected by noise. We will continue to work to further reduce aircraft noise whilst safeguarding the vital connectivity and economic growth that Heathrow provides.'