Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted airports reveal busiest-ever July

The fastest growth at Heathrow is for domestic flights, with an increase of 14.7 per cent year-on-year

Record-breaking: London Heathrow Terminal 5 as seen from a departing British Airways aircraft (Simon Calder)

Three of the UK’s four busiest airports have announced record passenger numbers for July.

A total of 7.98 million passengers passed through London Heathrow in July, representing 238 travellers per minute.

Heathrow – the busiest airport in Europe – saw six of its busiest-ever departure days in the week many schools broke up for the summer holiday, from 22 July. On each of those days more than 140,000 direct departing passengers left the airport daily.

Before July 2024, Heathrow had never surpassed 1.8 million passengers in a week. That number was achieved three weeks in a row.

The highest growth, year-on-year, was for domestic flights – up 14.7 per cent. The former prime minister, Rishi Sunak, encouraged a shift from rail to air by halving Air Passenger Duty on flights within the UK.

Heathrow’s two busiest routes, to New York JFK and Dubai, were joined by Doha and Dublin as the latest routes with one million passengers travelling to and from Heathrow this year.

The airport’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said: “In July, we were smashing a passenger record almost every single day and we’re chasing down our never before seen goal of serving eight million passengers in a single month.”

The eight million figure might have been achieved were it not for what Heathrow says is the impact of a “devastating” decision to make transit passengers obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to fly through Heathrow.

The last government brought in the requirement for passengers to pay £10 and enlist online even if they are planning to spend only a couple of hours in the airport between flights.

At present, the rule applies to transit passengers from seven Middle East nations: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. According to Heathrow figures, the ETA demand appears to be deterring at least 15,000 people per month.

Heathrow’s statement said: “This is devastating for our hub competitiveness. We urge government to review the inclusion of airside transit passengers. Every little bit of extra competitiveness that government can deliver for aviation will help deliver vital growth for the whole of the UK economy.”

In 2023, the previous government said ETAs would be required for all visitors who do not need a visa for short stays by the end of 2024, but this has been paused by the Labour administration. The Independent understands the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is considering the future of the scheme.

Manchester Airports Group, which also owns London Stansted and East Midlands, says it was the busiest July ever for Manchester and Stansted.

Manchester airport’s rolling 12-month figure is up to 29.6 million, half a million ahead of Stansted. They are respectively the third- and fourth-busiest airports in the UK.

The group said three per cent of passengers at Manchester airport waited more than 15 minutes to pass through security. At Stansted the figure was one per cent, while at East Midlands no one waited more than a quarter hour to get through the checkpoint.

At Heathrow, only one in 100 passengers waits more than 10 minutes to clear security.

London Gatwick has yet to publish its figures for July, which are likely to be affected by a large number of easyJet cancellations due to bad weather and air-traffic control delays across Europe.