The UK’s Heathrow airport has recorded the highest ever passenger traffic for September this year, with around 6.58 million passengers travelling through the airport.
The airport said that this was an increase of more than 0.3% over the passenger traffic numbers of September 2013.
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While seats per aircraft increased by 0.4% to 204.8, there was an increase of around 1.1% in load factors. Passengers per aircraft also rose by 1.5% to 165.9.
Passenger volumes within emerging markers increased with traffic from Mexico, China and Brazil seeing an increase of 17.6%, 14.9% and 10.3%, respectively.
The number of transfer passengers who make long-haul routes viable also saw a rise of around 2.9%.
Cargo went up by 7.8% reaching 57.2% to Mexico, 52.2% to Nigeria, 37.1% to Russia, 25.6% to China and 20.8% to India.
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By GlobalDataAmong the debate about which of UK’s airports should get an expansion, the airport said a majority of MPs were in support of an additional runway at Heathrow, with around 91% of the supporters also believing that it will secure parliamentary approval (Ipsos MORI).
Another survey revealed that local residents were also more in favour of expansion at Heathrow, with 49% supporting an additional runway and 32% opposing the idea (Populus).
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: "September saw growing support from MPs and local residents for expansion at Heathrow as the best solution to the UK’s hub capacity crisis. Heathrow handles a quarter of all British exports by value, but is full. More and more people are asking ‘how can we double Britain’s exports if we don’t expand Heathrow?’"
Image: Nearly 6.58 million passengers travelled through the Heathrow airport making it the busiest ever September. Photo: courtesy of Heathrow Airport.
