Heathrow loses £3.4bn since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic

The holding company for Heathrow airport has announced its Q3 results for 2021.

In Q3, Heathrow experienced its first full quarter of passenger growth since 2019, underscoring strong pent-up demand as travel restrictions eased and testing requirements were simplified.

Passenger numbers in Q3 recovered to 28 per cent, and cargo to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. However, traffic is not expected to fully recover until at least 2026.

According to the results, airports have very high fixed costs and despite over 30 per cent reduction in operating costs, Heathrow has lost £3.4bn cumulatively since the start of the pandemic and remains loss making today.

Despite this, the airport claims to have the financial strength, with £4.1bn of cash, to be able to come through until the market recovers.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow CEO, said: “We are on the cusp of a recovery which will unleash pent-up demand, create new quality jobs and see Britain’s trade roar back to life - but it risks a hard landing unless secured for the long-haul.

“To do that, we need continued focus on the global vaccination programme so that borders can reopen without testing; we need a fair financial settlement from the CAA to sustain service and resilience after 15 years of negative real returns for investors.”

John concluded: “We need a progressively increasing global mandate for Sustainable Aviation Fuels so that we can protect the benefits of aviation in a world without carbon.”