UK. London Heathrow Airport served 79.1 million passengers in 2023, a leap of +28.5% year-on-year.
This included a record December when passenger volumes reached 6.6 million. The busiest day was 22 December when Heathrow served almost 250,000 travellers.
Transatlantic travel remained a key driver for passenger numbers with 1.6 million travelling to and from North America in December. Heathrow’s busiest Christmas Day saw 142,000 passengers served across nearly 800 flights.
In the full year, New York JFK was the busiest destination with over three million passengers. 2023 was Terminal 5’s busiest year yet, surpassing 33 million passengers for the second time since opening 15 years ago and serving 2.6 million passengers in December alone.
Highlighting Heathrow’s position as the fourth busiest airport globally, routes with over one million passengers rose to 24 in 2023 with Boston and Geneva passing the milestone in December.
The full list of routes with over a million passengers in 2023, descending from highest passenger volume, is as follows: New York JFK, Dubai, Doha, Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Delhi, Istanbul, Munich, Hong Kong, Toronto, Singapore, Zurich, Mumbai, Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Newark, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Boston and Geneva.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said: “As we move into the new year, I want to extend my sincere thanks to all our Team Heathrow colleagues and partners for their hard and successful work over the busy festive period, which went really well in terms of service and operations. 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.” ✈
*Watch out for a video interview with Heathrow Retail Director Fraser Brown about performance in 2023 and prospects for 2024, in coming days.
