Heathrow reaches 80 million in 2018

Heathrow recorded its busiest year ever in 2018 with over 80 million passengers travelling through the UK’s only hub airport, an increase of 2.7% on 2017.

This growth was boosted by the use of larger and fuller aircraft, helping Heathrow to become one of only seven airports in the world to achieve the 80 million milestone.

Heathrow continued to raise the bar on customer satisfaction scores alongside these record passenger numbers with the airport named ‘Best Airport in Western Europe’ for the fourth year running, and ‘Best Airport for Shopping’ for the ninth year in the most recent Skytrax World Airport Awards. Terminal 2 also beat its international counterparts to win ‘World’s Best Airport Terminal’, with Terminal 5 coming in 4th.

Another highlight for 2018 was the over 1.6m metric tonnes of cargo travelling through the UK’s largest port by value throughout the year. This is the equivalent of 761 London Eyes, 88 Shard buildings or 32 QE2s. North American cargo made up over 600,000 metric tonnes, Asia Pacific was second highest with more than 510,000 metric tonnes.​

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye welcomed the results, saying, “2018 has been an exceptional year for Heathrow, with record passenger numbers and service levels, and with MPs voting overwhelmingly in support of expansion.”

“We are on track to deliver an expanded Heathrow in the early years of Brexit, which will keep Britain as one of the world’s great trading nations.”

December results in more detail…

• 6.5 million people travelled through Heathrow in December, as passengers made their way home for the holidays or sought winter sun.
• Traffic increased by 2.5%, making December the 26th consecutive record month.
• The regions that saw the most passenger growth were Africa and Latin America, up 9.3% and 7.0% respectively compared to last year.
• 132,000 metric tonnes of cargo travelled through the airport last month. The standout markets for cargo growth were Brazil, China and Turkey.
  

Other highlights from 2018…

In 2018, Heathrow unveiled the airport’s plans for carbon-neutral growth, outlining action on four key areas to reduce and offset carbon emissions from the growth in flights that would be created by an additional runway – including through investments in peatland restoration and free landing fees for the first electric flight.

Last year, Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority for Heathrow expansion – a project which will bring growth to every corner of the UK.