Heathrow boss renews calls for airport expansion as freight business grows

Chief John Holland-Kaye said Heathrow handles a quarter of all UK exports by value

Heathrow airport

(Getty)

The chief executive of Heathrow has re-iterated calls to expand the airport as its freight business grew rapidly last month.

Heathrow chief John Holland-Kaye said Heathrow now handles a quarter of all UK exports by value and that cargo traffic was up 7.8 per cent in September.

Figures showed freight to Mexico was up 57.2 per cent, 52.2 per cent to Nigeria, 37.1 per cent to Russia, 25.6 per cent to China and 20.8 per cent to India.

During a record September for the airport, 6.58 million passengers travelled through the hub, up 0.3 per cent on last year.

Heathrow said this was “supported by larger, fuller, quieter aircraft”. Seats per aircraft increased 0.4 per cent to 204.8, passengers per aircraft rose 1.5 per cent to 165.9.

Heathrow’s operator said today its expansion has the support of a majority of MPs and 49 per cent of local residents support an additional runway and 32 per cent oppose it, according to a Populus study.

Heathrow chief John Holland-Kaye said: “September saw growing support from MPs and local residents for expansion at Heathrow as the best solution to the UK’s hub capacity crisis.

"Heathrow handles a quarter of all British exports by value, but is full. More and more people are asking "how can we double Britain's exports if we don't expand Heathrow?”