UK airports continue to smash passenger records

Major UK airports have continued to enjoy record-setting passenger numbers as the summer season comes to an end.

London Heathrow catered for 7.3 million passengers in September, which beat the previous record for the month of just over 7 million passengers set in September 2023.

The airport said that last month’s performance “rounded off the record summer” with more than 30 million passengers using the UK hub between June and September. For the past 12 months, Heathrow’s traffic reached 82.9 million – up by 7.9 per cent on the previous year.

During September, Heathrow enjoyed year-on-year increases in traffic to every region of the world, except for Africa, which saw an 11.4 per cent fall.

Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye added: “We are closing out our super summer on a high, with over 30 million passengers passing through Heathrow’s doors in the last four months.”

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) also claimed a new record for traffic over the past 12 months with its three airports – Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands – catering for a total of 63.7 million passengers up to the end of September.

This included 6.3 million passengers in September, which was up by 5.7 per cent compared with September 2023. Manchester Airport also broke the barrier of 30 million passengers in any 12-month period for the first time, with year-on-year traffic rising by 10.5 per cent over this period.

MAG’s CEO Ken O’Toole said: “In delivering a record-breaking September, it was pleasing to round off a strong summer season across MAG.

“This reflects the popularity of the routes we offer at all three of our airports, whether people are travelling for business, leisure, to study or visit friends and family.”

MAG’s latest passenger records came as the company announced a £1.1 billion investment to expand facilities at Stansted.