Last year was by far the worst year for the global aviation industry, not only did it impact airlines around the world but it hit both major and regional airports. Heathrow Airport (LHR) is one of these major airports that has been badly affected by the collapse in passenger traffic and is an excellent example of what airports around the world are currently facing. In 2019, the airport recorded a record high of 80.9 million passengers transiting through its four terminals. However, last year, London’s busiest international hub handled just 22.1 million passengers, a drop of around 73% in passenger numbers.
The month of December is usually a very busy month for many airports around Europe as people return home to visit their families for the Christmas period. However, with a new COVID-19 strain identified in the UK, many decided not to travel for the Christmas period and this saw Heathrow’s passenger numbers fall by 82.9% in comparison to the same month in 2019. Cargo at the airport was also down by 15% for the month of December and this percentage rapidly increases to about 28% if the whole year is taken into consideration.
Heathrow is amongst the most-busiest hubs in Europe for North America-bound traffic. In 2019, 19 million people travelled through the airport bound for destinations across North America, but in 2020 just under 4 million passengers travelled to the United States and Canada. The main reason for such low numbers was because of travel bans introduced by the United States and Canada, these bans only allowed citizens or permanent residents to enter the country along with certain exceptions.
John Hollande-Kaye, the Chief Executive of the airport, favours most of the measures introduced by the UK government to fight the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including quarantine and pre-departure testing for international travellers, but he is also aware that such measures are not tolerable for a long period of time. The CEO is acutely aware that the airport will require financial support to cope with this unprecedented crisis and called on the UK government to develop a road map out of this lockdown and waive business rates.
In a statement the CEO of Heathrow, John Hollande-Kaye said, “The past year has been incredibly challenging for aviation. While we support tightening border controls temporarily by introducing pre-departure testing for international arrivals, as well as quarantine, this is not sustainable. The aviation industry is the cornerstone of the UK economy but is fighting for survival.”
Due to the sharp fall in demand for air travel, just two out of the airport’s four terminals are operational, Terminal 2 and Terminal 5 respectively. For a significant part of 2020, Heathrow has also been operating as a single-runway airport, while Terminal 4 is expected to remain closed for most of 2021. In terms of aircraft movements, last year the airport handled just 200,905 aircraft between cargo and passenger operations, a drop of over 57% in comparison to aircraft movements for 2019.
However, an airport’s business should not totally rely on passenger traffic. In fact, during 2020, Heathrow worked with many commercial airlines who began to operate cargo-only flights to make up for the loss in passengers demand. Throughout the course of 2020, nineteen thousand cargo-only flights travelled through London’s Heathrow Airport, which were operating by both commercial and cargo airlines, bringing essential supplies to and from the UK. Heathrow Airport (LHR) will continue to contribute to assist airlines and cargo handlers with vaccines as they are rolled out and distributed across the world.
