Heathrow expects record Christmas as passenger traffic continues to rise

(Sharecast News) - Heathrow has said it is preparing for its busiest December in history after monthly traffic statistics continued to set new records.

The UK's largest airport served a record 6.5m terminal passengers in November, up 6.1% from the previous year.

Passenger numbers increased year-on-year from all but one of its major international markets (passenger to and from Africa fell 1.5% to 277,000 - albeit being one of its smaller markets), with double-digit passenger growth seen in Asia-Pacific (+11.6% to 878,000) and Latin America (+20.9% to 199,000).

Domestic travel within the UK increased by 7.2% to 412,000 passengers, while passenger numbers to and from the EU rose 5.9% to 2.1m.

November's data puts the year-to-date passenger total at 76.8m, up 6.0% on the same period last year.



As for December, Heathrow said it expects a 21% increase in passengers flying on Christmas Day compared with last year.

"This year has been all about providing high levels of service for record amounts of passengers at Heathrow, and November was no different," said chief executive Thomas Woldbye.