Heathrow Airport traffic surges in September taking it to record high for last year

Latin American destinations particularly increased in popularity – resulting in a 9.3 per cent growth in traffic compared to last year

The top countries for growth in overall cargo volumes were the US, United Arab Emirates, China and Russia (Getty)

Almost 7 million passengers travelled through Heathrow Airport last month, taking the traffic figure over the last year to 77.43 million – a new all-time record.

Figures released on Wednesday showed that overall traffic in September increased by 2 per cent. Latin American destinations particularly increased in popularity – resulting in a 9.3 per cent growth in traffic compared to last year – thanks in part to British Airways’ launch of a new route to Santiago, Chile at the beginning of the year. Regional airline FlyBe alone added 20,000 extra passengers to its services within the UK in the month.

Heathrow said that cargo continued its record performance for a 14th consecutive month. Over 140,000 metric tonnes of goods passed through the airport in September, marking an 11.5 per cent increase in the value of trade for the month.

The top countries for growth in overall cargo volumes were the US, United Arab Emirates, China and Russia. British Airways and American Airlines saw the largest growth in cargo compared to last year.

“September has been another remarkable month for Heathrow, with passenger and cargo volumes hitting new highs,” said Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye.

Earlier in October, Heathrow announced plans to encourage regional connections to the UK’s hub airport and prepare the economy outside of London for Brexit.

It has urged the Government to abolish domestic Air Passenger Duty on all UK flights. The airport said that UK passengers are currently paying an extra £225m in aviation tax on domestic flights compared to many of their European counterparts.

Separately on Wednesday, data showed that 4.5 million passengers travelled through Gatwick airport in September, a 2.7 per cent increase on the same month last year.

Travel to long-haul destinations increased by 8.1 per cent, subsequently boosting the amount of cargo handled by the airport by 27.3 per cent.