Heathrow and Stansted Airports enjoyed their busiest ever Februarys last month.
Latest official figures show 5.8 million passengers travelled through the west London hub, up 11.6% on 2023, with the numbers boosted by the extra day for the Leap Year and the bumper half term. The biggest increase was on routes to Asia with a rise of 55.7% after major markets such as China finally dropped all Covid restrictions.
More than two million passengers departed or arrived at Heathrow over the record breaking half term. Winter sun won over the ski slopes with nearly two thirds of travellers landing somewhere warmer than London.
The 29th February added 207,000 passengers to the total putting Heathrow on track to pass its all-time high for the year as a whole. In the 12 months to February Heathrow handled 80.3 million passengers, just below record annual highs in 2019.
Meanwhile, cargo tonnage is already 21% up on 2023.
Recent route additions include BA to Abu Dhabi, Kos and Izmir, a new Virgin Atlantic service to Bangalore and the return of Vueling to Barcelona and Paris Orly, in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Another London Airport breaks records
More than 1.92 million passengers passed through Stansted’s terminal during February, beating the previous record set in February 2020 by almost 50,000.
Even without the extra leap year day, passenger numbers would have exceeded all previous records.
More than 360,000 passengers jetted out for the half-term holiday alone. Winter sun-seekers flocked to the Canary Islands, Southern Spain, Turkey, and Dubai, while the top choices for those heading to the slopes were Geneva, Chambery, Grenoble, Turin, Innsbruck, and Zurich.