Heathrow airport saw more than 6.6 million passengers travelling through its terminals in December 2023, marking its busiest ever December at a 12.7% increase year on year. Furthermore, the total number of passengers for 2023 reached 79 million, marking a 28.5% increase from the year prior.
Passengers from the Asia/Pacific region were the biggest contributor to the positive numbers with a 25.1% increase in December 2023. More significantly, Asia/Pacific passenger numbers rose 76.2% in 2023 when compared to 2022. China’s lifting of coronavirus travel restrictions in 2023 will have played a major role in this dramatic increase.
While the numbers were mostly positive for December 2023, there was a 0.5% decrease in passengers from Africa. However, over the full year, passengers from this market increased by 25%.
Transatlantic travel remained a key driver for passenger numbers with 1.6 million travelling to and from North America in December, increasing 10.9% that month year on year.
“By ending 2023 on a high, a strong foundation is laid for 2024 during which Heathrow will continue to grow and to facilitate the UK’s potential for global growth,” said Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye.
Heathrow also saw tonnes of cargo increase by 2% in 2023 to 1.43 million tonnes.