Best ever month for passenger traffic at London’s Heathrow Airport

London’s Heathrow Airport made history in August, surpassing eight million passengers in a single month for the first time.

The milestone achievement positions Heathrow as the first major European hub to exceed the eight million mark and, arguably, further cements Heathrow’s critical role as the UK’s gateway to growth.

A statement issued by the airport today, says: “With record numbers choosing Heathrow this summer, we hit our busiest ever day on 1st August with over 270,000 passengers, we eclipsed our previous record departures and arrivals days and Terminal 5 set a new single-day record on 22nd August, successfully welcoming more than 112,000 travellers.

“Despite the unprecedented passenger volumes, we’ve had our strongest summer yet and our service levels remain sky high. Last month 98% of bags travelled on their flights as expected and 96% of passengers waited less than five minutes at security.

“Heathrow’s punctuality levels also continued to top the league tables, we recorded our most punctual August ever and remained steadfast in our position as Europe’s most punctual major hub.”

Airport CEO, Thomas Woldbye, notes: “Heathrow became the first European airport to handle over eight million passengers in a single month, and we achieved that whilst maintaining industry-leading punctuality and service levels. This is an outstanding achievement.”

The UK hub also took the opportunity to further remind the UK government that its expansion plans are critical to its continued success in the future.

“As we’re now operating at full capacity to the detriment of UK trade and connectivity, we welcome the government’s commitment to expanding Heathrow,” the statements adds.

“Earlier this summer we submitted our proposal for a 100% privately financed runway that could be operational within a decade and will support the national mission for economic growth.”