Heathrow started the year with another record month with 6.3 million passengers passing through the airport in January. The total was up 5% on last year suggesting that the post-pandemic boom in air travel has not yet topped out. It is the first set of passenger figures from the west London hub since Rachel Reeves gave her backing to a third runway that could increase Heathrow’s capacity to 140 million passengers a year.
It was the eleventh month in a row that Heathrow has averaged over 200,000 passengers a day, with trans-Atlantic travel driving the growth. More than 1.2 million passengers travelled between the UK and US, up 8 percent compared on 2024. Almost 120,000 tonnes of cargo passed through Heathrow in January, twice as much as all other UK airports combined. See also: Cleared for take-off - but Heathrow's third runway still faces many obstacles.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said: “2025 has started how we mean to go on - serving record breaking passenger numbers and delivering trade and investment across the whole of the UK. “To ensure we continue on this upwards trajectory, the Government has signalled their support for an expanded Heathrow. We'll now work with Ministers to progress the necessary policy changes required to advance our growth plans.”.
The airport also said: “We welcome the Chancellor’s recent show of support for a third runway at Heathrow. “To successfully deliver this project at pace will require policy changes, including on airspace modernisation, planning policy reform and changes to the regulatory regime. “We are now working with our stakeholders to finalise our plans and will submit our proposal to Government by the summer. “.
