44BI Heathrow 51

March passengers help Heathrow hit second record breaking month in a row

§ Nearly seven million people travelled through Heathrow in March, making it the second month in a row the airport served a record number of passengers this year

§ 936,000 passengers took advantage of the bank holiday making it our busiest Easter weekend ever and Good Friday was the busiest ever direct departure day with 118,000 people beginning their journey at Heathrow

§ During March, over 94% of passengers rated their overall satisfaction at the airport as 'Good' or 'Excellent', and as we move towards the summer period passengers can be assured the focus remains on providing a smooth and strong operation. Work continues at pace to optimise our current infrastructure making passenger processes faster, more efficient and more resilient including the £1bn upgrade to 146 security scanners and ongoing investment in our T2 baggage system

§ While we support the overall rationale behind the introduction of Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) - the government scheme making all global visitors without legal residence in the UK pay a fee of £10 to enter or transit through the UK - applying them to airside transit passengers will put UK airports at a competitive disadvantage compared to EU hubs

§ We are already seeing an impact, in the first four months of ETAs being in place 19,000 fewer transit passengers travelled from Qatar, with the transfer route recording its lowest monthly proportions for over ten years each month since the implementation of ETAs. This is a huge blow to UK competitiveness as many long-haul routes, which are highly important to the UK's economy, exports and wider connectivity, rely on transit passengers. With more connecting passengers expected to choose other hubs as the scheme expands, Minsters need to take action to remove this measure

Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said:

"We're on a journey to be an extraordinary airport fit for the future and it's great to see the progress we're making this year with smooth journeys for a record number of passengers choosing Heathrow. But to keep up the momentum the government needs to exempt airside transit passengers from the ETA scheme to avoid encouraging passengers to spend and do business elsewhere. We need to level the playing field, so the UK aviation industry continues to be world-class."