Heathrow Airport’s daily passenger cap appears to be having the desired effect, as airport bosses celebrate fewer last-minute cancellations, improved punctuality, and more timely baggage handling.

Earlier this summer, Heathrow Airport hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Like many others worldwide, it was struggling to cope with the post-pandemic rebound in air travel, caused in part by difficulties in recruiting staff, and delays in the security vetting process for those who had been recruited.

In a bid to tackle the disruption, the airport trimmed its capacity and imposed a limit of 100,000 departing passengers daily on July 12th. The cap will remain in place until September 11th. The airport also took the unprecedented move of asking airlines to stop selling tickets, with British Airways suspending short-haul ticket sales as a result.

The response from Heathrow Airport

In an update on Thursday, Heathrow Airport’s chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said,

"Passengers are seeing better, more reliable journeys since the introduction of the demand cap. I want to thank all my colleagues across the airport for their amazing work in getting people away on their holidays. This has only been possible because of the collective and determined efforts of airport, airlines and wider Team Heathrow teams."

Since the worst of the disruption, Heathrow Airport has recruited a further 1,300 security staff. According to the airport, 88% of passengers are now clearing security in 20 minutes, similar to pre-pandemic levels.

The airport stated that the UK’s Border Force had also performed well so far this summer, and confirmed that they are working collaboratively “to help them secure sufficient resource to serve the peak in passengers returning to the UK over the next few weeks.”

In addition, a review is being conducted into ground handling capacity at the airport, which is key to the lifting of the passenger cap next month.

Impressive growth in passenger numbers

Despite the cap, Heathrow Airport, home to British Airways, saw 6.3 million passengers in July, which is an increase of 330% on July 2021. This is the largest rise in passenger numbers of any European airport. The figures for August, which includes the peak school summer holiday period for much of the UK, are expected to be even higher.

The largest year-on-year increase in passengers came from those traveling to North America, with an 802% rise. This is not surprising, given the prominence of transatlantic routes from Heathrow Airport, and the fact that at this point last year, the US was closed to the majority of travelers.

The most popular long-haul destinations for travelers from Heathrow Airport so far this summer have been New York, Los Angeles, and Dubai.

Following the pandemic, the former busiest international airport in the world had slipped to seventh place, but its recovery is now well underway. With a staggering 16 million passengers expected to travel through Heathrow Airport between July and September, travelers and airlines alike will be hoping that these improvements continue throughout what remains of the summer.