London airport makes history with record-breaking summer

A London airport has made history by becoming the first major European hub to handle over eight million passengers in a single month during one of the busiest summers on record.

Heathrow Airport surpassed the eight million mark in August, after experiencing its busiest day ever on August 1, welcoming over 270,000 travellers.

Terminal 5 alone recorded over 112,000 passengers on August 22, setting a new single-day terminal record.

Despite the high volumes, the airport reports its strongest summer performance to date, with 98 per cent of bags arriving as scheduled and 96 per cent of passengers clearing security in less than five minutes.

On-the-day cancellations across the summer decreased by more than a third compared with the same time last year and passengers travelling without their bags reduced by 42 per cent year-on-year.

August was also Heathrow’s most punctual month on record, cementing its status as Europe’s most on-time major hub.

The record-breaking month comes amid growing momentum behind the Government’s commitment to expanding Heathrow, a move that could unlock greater capacity, greater routes and greater trading opportunities.

As part of this vision, Heathrow has submitted plans for a 100 per cent privately funded third runway, which could be operational within the next decade and support the national mission for economic growth.

Heathrow CEO, Thomas Woldbye, said: “August is set to go down in the history books – Heathrow became the first European airport to handle over eight million passengers in a single month and we achieved that while maintaining industry-leading punctuality and service levels.

“This is an outstanding achievement, made possible by the collective efforts of our colleagues, airline partners and the wider airport community, who worked as one to deliver excellent service for our passengers and the UK.”