- Heathrow posted a pre-tax profit of £189m in the first three months of 2024
- Passenger numbers increased by 9.5%, partly due to high demand from East Asia.
London’s Heathrow is anticipating its busiest summer ever this year despite the looming threat of a strike at Europe’s largest airport.
The British Airways hub rebounded and turned a profit in the first quarter of 2024 after a record 18.5 million travelers passed through the airport.
It posted a pre-tax profit of £189 million for the first three months of 2024, compared to a loss of £60 million during the same period last year.
Passenger numbers rose 9.5 percent, which Heathrow attributed in part to increased business travel to destinations such as Mumbai and New Delhi and a resurgence in demand from East Asia.
Rebound: Heathrow Airport posted a pre-tax profit of £189m for the first three months of 2024, compared with a loss of £60m for the same period last year.
It saw growth in “almost all markets”, particularly the UK, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, where customer traffic increased by double-digit percentage levels.
Consequently, Heathrow now expects passenger volumes in 2024 to reach a record 82.4 million, up from 79 million the previous year.
The travel center expects the upcoming summer season to be its busiest ever, “even if unnecessary industrial actions materialize.”
On Tuesday, the Unite union announced that 800 Heathrow employees will go on strike between May 7 and 13 over the airport’s plans to outsource hundreds of functions to save money.
According to Unite, starting in June, the jobs of passenger services employees, who help travelers find their connecting flights, tram operations and campus security, will be outsourced.
Another 72-hour strike involving 50 refueling employees will begin on May 4, coinciding with the early May holiday weekend.
Heathrow said it has a “robust operational plan” to ensure the airport continues to operate if strikes occur.
Javier Echave, Heathrow’s outgoing chief financial officer, said the airport “is on a solid financial footing and has a clear flight path ahead.”
“On the horizon is Heathrow’s busiest summer yet, with more passengers and destinations served than ever before.”
British Airways recently launched a new route from central west London to Abu Dhabi and is set to open further routes to Kos, Greece and Izmir, Turkey.
Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic has a new route from Heathrow to Bengaluru, India, while low-cost airline Vueling now flies direct to Barcelona and Paris-Orly.
Heathrow also called on the UK Government on Wednesday to “reconsider anti-growth policies” such as the tourist tax and “unnecessary” visas for transit passengers.
Until early 2021, international visitors would be able to claim a VAT refund on items purchased but not consumed in Great Britain.
Hundreds of retailers and organizations have blamed the abolition of the refund scheme for driving tourists to shop in other popular tourist destinations such as Paris, Milan and Rome.
Bringing back duty-free shopping would add up to £4.1bn to UK GDP and support 78,000 jobs, according to consultancy Oxford Economics.