Passengers inside the departures area of terminal five at Heathrow Airport
(Picture: PA Wire)Heathrow bosses expect the airport to handle almost 53 million passengers this year after an Easter boom in holidays forced them to upgrade their forecasts.
The west London hub said five million passengers went through its terminals in April as holidaymakers took the opportunity to fly abroad — many for the first time in two years — following the lifting of the final Covid travel restrictions by the Government in March.
The airport upgraded its official forecast by 16 per cent from 45.5 million to 53 million, around two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels.
The surge caught the industry by surprise, resulting in chaos at woefully understaffed airports that has led to fears about long delays during the summer peak. This week both Manchester and Birmingham airports were hit by huge queues to clear security.
Heathrow, which is recruiting a 1,000 security staff, said it had escaped the worst of the problems with 97 per cent of passengers through security within 10 minutes. It has also pledged to reopen Terminal Four in July to help the airport cope with the upsurge in passengers.
However, chief executive John Holland-Kaye also warned that the recovery in passenger traffic could be curbed by the war in Ukraine, higher fuel costs and continuing travel restrictions in some destinations such as the United States.
He expects the airport to stay in the red this year after racking up losses of £4 billion during the pandemic and urged the regulator the Civil Aviation Authority to allow it to hike landing changes to pay for future investment.
