Heathrow Airport has had its busiest day in its history last month as on 29 July the UK hub welcomed nearly 262,000 passengers in 24 hours.
Overall, July reached unprecedented peaks, with over a quarter of a million passengers travelling through the airport on 19 different days in the month.
Over 7.8 million passengers travelled through the airport on the 21stconsecutive record month, with figures up by 3.7 per cent.
The airport’s already popular North American routes saw significant growth of 8.1 per cent, a total of 1.8 million passengers driven by larger, fuller aircraft.
Heathrow said figures reiterate the need to extend the use of self-service e-gates to nations such as the United States and Canada.
Passenger numbers for Asia-Pacific climbed by 4.2 per cent following new services from Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines, connecting the UK to Changsha and Xi’an and Qingdao. In the past two years Heathrow has welcomed nine new routes to Chinese destinations
In July, Heathrow said it completed 65 visits to all longlisted sites bidding to help deliver the expanded airport and completed the 1st stage of its search for innovation partners. Receiving over 100 Expressions of Interest, this initiative sets out to encourage fresh thinking around how Heathrow delivers the expanded airport
Heathrow chief executive officer, John Holland-Kaye said: “It’s brilliant to see even more international visitors coming to the UK and supercharging the country’s economy this summer. However, too often their first impression of the UK is a long queue for immigration. The Home Office should let visitors from low risk countries, such as the US, use the same e-gates as EU visitors to give them a warm welcome to Britain.”
