Heathrow Airport warns passenger growth is levelling off

West London airport welcomed 6.4 million passengers through its doors in April

Passengers from international flights arrive at Heathrow Airport. Reuters

Heathrow Airport has warned that the return of passengers through its terminals may already be levelling off, rather than overtaking pre-pandemic numbers.

Demand for air travel surged after the UK’s travel rules were scrapped but it has flatlined compared with pre-virus levels in recent months.

Some 6.4 million passengers travelled through the airport in April.

Heathrow said: “There are early indications that passenger growth may be levelling off, with recovery now stable at 93 per cent - 95 per cent of 2019 levels across each of the first four months of this year.”

It said that during the Easter and coronation getaways, more than 90 per cent of passengers travelled through security

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye, who will step down later this year after nine years as the boss of Britain's biggest aviation hub, said: “It is only 12 months since all international travel restrictions in the UK were lifted, and we have made tremendous progress. I am proud that colleagues across Heathrow have shown Britain at its best for visitors arriving for the coronation.”

Security guards at the airport are holding a series of strikes after talks over pay broke down.

Unite union's 1,400 members working at Terminal 5 and in campus security walked out earlier this week and will strike once more on May 25-27. The airport says it has introduced contingency plans to minimise disruption to passengers.

In April, Heathrow announced it made a loss in the first quarter, blaming fees set by the regulator as it posted a 74 per cent annual increase in passenger traffic.

It recorded 16.9 million passengers in the first three months of the year, a substantial increase over last year’s pandemic-affected numbers.

Yet it posted a £139 million ($173 million) adjusted loss, saying fees had been set “too low”. It has launched an appeal against the passenger fees, which it had been ordered to lower for airlines using the UK airport.

Decades of flight: Heathrow through the years - in pictures

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