Heathrow overtaken as Europe's busiest airport amid pandemic

Published31 minutes ago

Heathrow says it has been overtaken as Europe's busiest airport for the first time by Paris Charles de Gaulle because of a slump in demand for air travel.

Heathrow said its passenger numbers were 84% down in the three months to September as the pandemic continued to ravage its business.

It expects 22.6 million passengers next year, a quarter of 2019 levels.

Boss John Holland Kaye said Britain had been too slow to embrace passenger testing and was "falling behind".

He said Paris Charles De Gaulle and other rivals such as Amsterdam Schiphol had reopened faster because they had implemented testing regimes.

"European leaders acted quicker and now their economies are reaping the benefits," Mr Holland Kaye said.

"Let's make Britain a winner again. Bringing in pre-departure Covid tests and partnering with our US allies to open a pilot air bridge to America will kickstart our economic recovery and put the UK back ahead of our European rivals."

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said he wants to have post-arrivals testing up and running in the UK by 1 December.

This would reduce the amount of time arrivals had to spend in quarantine from 14 days - seen as a big deterrent to air travel - to a week.

But Mr Holland Kaye told the BBC the industry still needed a "commitment" it would happen.

Heathrow, which is already cutting 500 jobs, said its losses had widened to £1.5bn in the first nine months of the year.

But it said its finances were solid and it had enough reserves to tide it over until 2023.