Heathrow has said it regained its status as Europe’s busiest hub airport during the summer.
About 5.8 million passengers travelled through the London airport in September, more than rivals in cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Madrid.
The figure was 15 per cent lower than the total for the same month in 2019, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, Heathrow said it had gone from being Europe’s busiest airport in 2019 to number 10 on the list.
It blamed its fall in the rankings on the UK’s coronavirus travel restrictions.
Those curbs were lifted in March and Heathrow said it recorded more passengers than other European hub airport between July and September.
But the airport said the outlook for future demand “remains uncertain” because of “growing economic headwinds, a new wave of Covid and the escalating situation in Ukraine”.
“However, we expect peak days at Christmas to be very busy," it said.
The airport said last week that it was lifting a cap on passenger numbers put in place to limit disruption due to staff shortages, in a move that offered airlines the opportunity to meet market demand.
The cap will be lifted on October 29.
Decades of flight from at Heathrow - in pictures
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Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's busiest, has been a travel hub for decades. Here The National takes a look back at Heathrow through the years. All photos: Getty Images -
An Airco De Havilland biplane of the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, about to leave on the company’s inaugural flight from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, later known as Heathrow, to Le Bourget, Paris, in August 1919 -
Waterlogged runways at London Airport - Heathrow's original name - one week before it became Britain's main aerial gateway to the US in 1946 -
The new BOAC maintenance headquarters at London Airport circa 1955 -
The air traffic control room at the airport's new terminal in 1955 -
US film star Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, after arriving at the airport in July 1956 -
An aerial view showing the runways in 1958 -
The arrivals and departures board in 1960 -
A new airport gift shop, selling items by Chanel, Wedgwood and Pringle of Scotland, in 1961 -
The Queen's Building and the No. 1 Building Europa at Heathrow in 1965 -
The Beatles leave Heathrow for Salzburg in Austria, to resume filming of the movie Help!, in 1965 -
Passenger terminal gates at Heathrow in 1966 -
Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow in 1969 -
An aerial view of Heathrow in 1970 -
Passengers boarding the first BOAC Jumbo Jet 747 used for a commercial flight, from London Heathrow to New York, in 1971 -
Passengers going through the departure lounge at Heathrow in 1973 -
Concorde takes off from Heathrow on her first commercial flight for British Airways in 1976 -
Men at work finalising the Heathrow Central underground station before its opening in 1977 -
Queen Elizabeth II passing though the Tube gates at Heathrow Central station on its opening in 1977 -
An aerial view of Heathrow in 1978 -
Passengers waiting near a departures board in 1979 -
Holidaymakers waiting in the departure lounge at Terminal 3 of Heathrow in 1981 -
British Airways employees protesting at Heathrow in 1984 -
Passengers and staff observe a silence in Heathrow's Terminal One to mark the beginning of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 -
Rower Steve Redgrave at Heathrow with daughters Sophie and Natalie and son Zak after returning from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with his gold medal -
Spectators watch the last Concorde land at Heathrow in 2003 -
Fans surround the coach carrying the England rugby team at Heathrow, as they arrived from Sydney after winning the World Cup in 2003 -
Heathrow's Terminal 2 in 2004 -
Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 1 of Heathrow Airport during the Christmas 2006 and New Year period -
Passengers wait at Terminal 1 on August 10, 2006, after airport security was raised to critical when a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US was disrupted by police -
Planes queueing to take off at Heathrow in 2007 -
The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow in 2008 -
Aircraft at Heathrow Airport in front of the London skyline in 2016 -
Members of Team GB arrive from Rio de Janeiro at Heathrow, after returning from the 2016 Olympics, which saw Great Britain's strongest performance at the Games in over a century -
A composite photo shows planes taking off from Heathrow in November 2016. Forty-two planes were captured between 10.17am and 11.17am and a montage was created from those single images -
Items are arranged during an auction preview at Heathrow in 2018. The contents of Terminal 1, which closed in 2015, were being sold -
An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags through Heathrow's Terminal 5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 -
British Airways employees welcome Olympians returning from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 -
Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check in 2022
The airport said the passenger cap helped to balance supply and demand, as numbers dipped in July when passengers began to exceed capacity, leading to long queues and lost baggage as the lack of staff took a toll.
The cap led to disagreement with airlines, including Emirates, over demands to reduce flights.
The number of people leaving Europe’s biggest airport has been capped at 100,000 a day since July.
The airport said today: "Resource levels across the airport, airlines and their ground handlers have been increasing and we have now removed the cap.
"We are working with our airline partners to develop a more targeted mechanism, which protects passenger service during peak periods."
Heathrow said its focus in the next 12 months was to get capacity, service levels and resilience back to pre-pandemic levels.
“Heathrow has grown more in the past 12 months than any airport in Europe and we’ve delivered a great passenger experience to the vast majority of travellers," said Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye.
"While we face many economic headwinds, as well as the legacy of Covid, our aim is to get back to full capacity and the world-class service people should expect from the UK’s hub airport as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, foreign travel from the UK nearly doubled after coronavirus restrictions were lifted, according to new research.
Travel trade organisation Abta said a survey indicates that 38 per cent of people travelled abroad between March and August, compared with 21 per cent during the previous six months.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer, speaking at the organisation’s annual convention in Marrakesh, Morocco, said: “The lifting of the UK’s travel rules this year unleashed a surge in overseas holidays.
“Given how much these restrictions had dampened demand, it’s quite remarkable to see foreign holiday taking already reaching 70 per cent of 2019 levels, which was in itself a bumper year for travel, in such a short space of time.
“We now face an uncertain year ahead given the cost-of-living challenges, but Abta’s research suggests that we should continue to see an increase in foreign holidays next year and, encouragingly, many of our members have also been reporting a high level of demand for bookings.”
