Heathrow results

Still the world’s busiest international airport, and also holding the title for the most used with two runways, Heathrow recorded a record 70m passengers last year, boosting the airport's revenues by 8% to £2.46bn.  

At 471k flights it was not far short of its legal 480k limit.  For the present, further growth will only come with larger aircraft using the airport, and the withdrawal of those with less than 100 seats.  This would drive up the average passenger load without increasing the number of flights.  A figure for 2018/19 of around 72.6m has been suggested by the airport.

Announcing its annual results for the first time as Heathrow Airport Ltd (which includes Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports), attention was drawn to the fact that they included Stansted Airport, which was sold to Manchester Airports Group for £1.5bn last year.  Stansted's passenger numbers fell 3.2% to 17.5m last year. 

Construction of the new Heathrow Terminal 2 should be completed towards the end of 2013, with operations commencing in mid-2014.  This project accounted for a large slice of the £1.1bn invested in the airport during 2012, an increase of more than 30% on a year earlier. See ON THE SOAPBOX SPECIAL  www.heathrowairport.com

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