Heathrow reported its busiest April on record with almost 7.1 million passengers travelling through the airport last month.
The London airport said numbers were 6% up on the same time last year and a ‘bumper’ Easter getaway helped boost numbers with close to one million people flying out during the Bank Holiday weekend.
Italy performed well over Easter with record departure numbers to Florence and Venice.
April’s figures followed a slump in numbers in March, which saw passengers drop to 6.2m, down 7.5% on the previous year.
At the time, Heathrow said a later Easter, the timing of Ramadan and its forced closure on 21 March because of a power supply failure caused by fire at a nearby substation, were all factors in the drop in numbers.
For this month (May) the Heathrow-JFK route – the busiest long-haul route in the world – hit its millionth passenger of the year in record time.
Heathrow said it has also recorded the highest departure punctuality out of the major European hubs with 99% of bags travelling on flights as expected in April, and 97% of passengers waited less than five minutes at security.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said: “Last month showed Heathrow at its very best – we successfully navigated our busiest April ever whilst our service levels took a further leap forward.
“We’re providing great value for our passengers and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in collaboration with our Team Heathrow partners so far this year. We’re now firmly focused on the busy summer ahead and work is underway across the airport to ensure we continue delivering for our customers.”
