Heathrow recorded its busiest-ever month in July and its busiest-ever day on Sunday July 18 when 232,000 passengers passed through the airport.
Monthly traffic at Heathrow was up 3.5% on July 2009 to 6.7 million passengers, although numbers for the year to date remain 2.3% down on last year. The figures mean Heathrow is operating close to capacity again following last year’s downturn.
Total traffic across operator BAA’s six UK airports rose marginally despite Stansted seeing a further marked decline – down 7.2% on last year in line with a reduction in seats available, chiefly on Ryanair.
Aberdeen (-4.1%), Glasgow (-3.6%) and Southampton (-1.4%) also saw falling passenger numbers, with only Edinburgh (+0.6%) joining Heathrow in a move in the opposite direction.
The figures are the first indicators of UK passenger numbers since February to exclude disruption due to British Airways strikes or volcanic ash. Domestic traffic across the airports was down 4.6%.
The big surge at Heathrow came in traffic to and from Europe, which rose 9.5% year on year in July.