Heathrow records biggest departure day yet for passengers over Easter

Heathrow Airport has celebrated its 17th consecutive record month, with 6.5m passengers in March, up 5.5 per cent year-on-year.

The Easter holidays, coupled with half term, led to the airport having its busiest departures day ever, with over 136,000 departing passengers travelling on March 30.

Long-haul, emerging destinations were some of the best performers, as the airport reported double-digit growth in African (12 per cent) and Middle Eastern markets (11 per cent).

Latin America also experienced significant growth, up 7.3 per cent. Cargo volumes increased by 1.5 per cent, with the airport reporting the 20th consecutive record month.

Heathrow’s CEO, John Holland-Kaye, said: “The booming growth in passenger numbers and cargo, particularly from emerging markets, underpins the urgency to secure Britain’s economic future with a third runway at Heathrow - which has now been backed by the cross-party Transport Select Committee.

“We are delighted that passengers have rated us one of the top ten airports worldwide, recognising the huge improvements in service we have made over the last few years.”

New routes launched by Hainan Airlines and Tianjin Airlines provided the UK’s first direct connections to the growing cities of Changsha and X’ian.

Qantas also began its first direct service to Perth from Heathrow, offering the fastest route to Australia for both UK cargo and passengers.

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