Operational Update - 29 Oct 2020

29 Oct 2020

The following is an update on the number of flight movements we expect to see at Heathrow in November.

Flight movements

At the end of September, we said we expected to see an increase in flight movements in October compared with September mainly due to airlines trying to stimulate the market by increasing the number of flights. We expected to see between 520-700 flight movements a day during the month, based on the information available to us at the time, although numbers could vary as airlines’ schedules are continuously being revised. As of today (29 October 2020), the lowest number of flights in the month so far has been 453 (20 October) and the highest has been 687 (25 October).

Based on our latest forecast and the information currently available, we are expecting to see between 360-690 flight movements a day during November. The higher end of the range is mainly due to the end of school half term falling in the first few days of November. However following this, we are expecting flight movements to drop to between 360-500. This decrease is due to a combination of factors, namely the current status of the pandemic and November typically being a quieter month. Of course these numbers may vary based on the reasons outlined above and the impending France and Germany lockdowns.

Winter period

As mentioned in our update last month, Heathrow has unfortunately not seen the recovery in passenger numbers hoped for over the summer season, and due to continued travel and quarantine restrictions, we face uncertainty over the winter period on how COVID-19 will affect our flight numbers. This uncertainty means it is difficult to predict how our operations will be impacted during winter.

As a result, we will continuously review the situation and the implications for the airport. This may include further consolidation of our operations including the possibility of returning to single runway operations if flight numbers significantly reduce from current volumes.

We will keep you updated on any changes to our runway operations.