The glamour of international air travel is bouncing back - and Heathrow Airport bosses say they’ve got the passenger numbers to prove it.
LHR revealed on Wednesday that the number of travellers was back above pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
Compared to last year, there was a rise of over 22 per cent in the number of people passing through its terminals.
Airport bosses say more than seven million passengers took off or landed over September, soaring past 2019’s figures of nearly 6.8 million travellers.
The biggest increase of nearly 60 per cent - or 883,000 - was passengers bound for or travelling from the Asia and Pacific region.
The numbers boost comes despite significant logistics troubles over the few months at the world’s busiest airport, including a strike by Border Force staff, lots of lost baggage and tech meltdown at the Nats air traffic control service.
It also follows Terminal 3 needing to be evacuated on Tuesday after a suspicious bag was found, and on Monday Terminal 4 was cleared after a disturbance on the Elizabeth Line.
To discover more about Heathrow’s post-Covid bounce, the Leader podcast’s joined by Evening Standard business editor Jonathan Prynn.
Plus, latest on a major fire sparked by an exploding car at Luton Airport, where five people were taken to hospital and many flights suspended as firefighters spent 12 hours battling the flames.
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service say their current hypothesis is the blaze started accidentally in the £20million Terminal Car Park Two.
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