Heathrow Airport’s most festive exports, from 27 tonnes of Christmas lights to 6,000 tonnes of salmon

A record-breaking 143,000 tonnes of Christmas cargo is due to fly out of the London airport by 25 December

Heathrow Airport can't quite compete with Father Christmas but it's trying (Heathrow Airport)

Heathrow - or perhaps it should be Heathrow-ho-ho - has revealed the record-breaking amounts of festive exports that fly through the airport in the run-up to Christmas.

More than 143,000 tonnes of seasonal goods are expected to be flown through in the month before 25 December.

Data shows a huge spike in Christmas staples being flown all over the world from 24 November.

Thousands of tonnes of Christmas lights, frozen lobsters and calendars have all been flown around the world via Heathrow in preparation.

Some 6,070 tonnes of salmon was flown through the UK’s busiest airport in November and December 2016 – the equivalent of 480 London routemaster buses – as was 4,834 tonnes of books.

This year, 27 tonnes of Christmas lights have travelled via Heathrow, along with 31 tonnes of calendars and 310 tonnes of dried flowers for decorations.

“Heathrow is at its busiest time at Christmas – and this year, we not only expect record numbers of passengers to fly through, but also a record amount of cargo to be flown in the holds under their feet,” said Nick Platts, head of cargo at Heathrow Airport. “Santa may still have the claim on the most deliveries on Christmas Eve, but for the months before it, Heathrow is doing its bit to export our British Christmas across the world.”

The top five places that exports are being flown to outside the EU are:

United States (15,310 tonnes)

China (6,200 tonnes)

UAE (3,770 tonnes)

Australia (3,360 tonnes)

Hong Kong (2,770 tonnes)

The airport has seen a record-breaking 290,341 tonnes of exports flying through to non-EU destinations from January to October this year, up 8.5 per cent from 2016. In total these exports are worth £39.62bn.