Heathrow passenger numbers ‘consistently below pre-pandemic levels’ due to cost of living crisis

Airport says cost-of-living crisis is cutting demand for the rest of the year

Going places: London Heathrow airport Terminal 5, the home of British Airways (Simon Calder)

The UK’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, continued to lose money in the first six months of 2023. Airport bosses blame the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – which regulates charges at Heathrow – for a pre-tax loss of £139m, which represents more than £500 per minute.

Passenger numbers remain “consistently below pre-pandemic levels”, while the “cost-of-living crisis is a material headwind for second-half demand” according to the airport’s statement.

The chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, told the BBC Today programme: “The CAA has set our prices too low to be able to cover all of our costs.

“The CAA has actually set [the cap on charges] lower for the next five years than for the previous five years – even though passenger numbers are lower and demand is falling.

“Anyone who is travelling will know that airline prices are significantly higher than they were before the pandemic. And yet the CAA has still cut our charges.

“That just doesn’t make any sense: that we should be able to recover less revenue than we used to be able to.”

In March 2023 the CAA said the average maximum price per passenger would fall by about one-fifth from £31.57 per passenger this year to £25.43 next year “and will remain broadly flat at that level until the end of 2026”.

At the time, the-then chief executive of the CAA, Richard Moriarty, said: “Our priority in making this decision today is to ensure the travelling public can expect great value for money from using Heathrow in terms of having a consistently good quality of service, whilst paying no more than is needed for it.

“We are confident our final decision represents a good deal for consumers using Heathrow, while having regard for the airport’s need to efficiently finance its operations and be able to invest in improving services for the future”.

Between January and June, 37.1 million passengers travelled through Heathrow, down 1.7 million on the figure for the same spell in 2019.

The airport said queues had reduced with “almost all passengers waiting less than five minutes at security”.

Mr Holland-Kaye will step down as chief executive in October after nine years. Thomas Woldbye, the current boss of Copenhagen airport, will take over.