Taylor Swift fans help Heathrow and Stansted airports break records for passengers
Fastest growth in passengers at Heathrow is on domestic flights, encouraged by last year’s tax cut
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Fans of Taylor Swift flying in and out of London helped Heathrow and Stansted airports set new records for passenger numbers in August.
The superstar played five dates at Wembley Stadium in August from 15 to 20 August. Heathrow airport, just 10 miles from the venue, reported its busiest-ever day on Taylor Swift’s “day off” on Sunday 18 August.
Between 6am and 11pm that day, 269,000 passengers passed through the UK’s main hub airport – a rate of 4.4 travellers per second.
The airport says that the Taylor Swift concerts brought in an additional 40,000 passengers over the summer.
A new record was also set for Heathrow’s busiest week. Between 13 and 19 August, 1.8 million passengers passed through the airport.
For comparison, that is more than Cardiff, Southampton and Inverness airports each handle in two years. Two new Heathrow routes have joined the so-called “millionaire club” with more than 1,000,000 passengers during the course of a year.
The busiest routes in order are New York JFK, Dubai, Doha and Dublin. They have been joined by Los Angeles LAX and Madrid.
By far the strongest growth at Heathrow was on UK domestic routes, up 12.3 per cent on a year earlier. Last year Air Passenger Duty was cut for flights within the UK, encouraging a switch from rail to air. The most popular domestic route links Heathrow with Edinburgh.
The chief executive of Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye, said: “For the past four months we have broken several new records, demonstrating our ability to open a world of opportunity for more people, cargo, business and the UK economy.”
London Stansted also broke its previous passenger record in August. More than 103,000 passengers travelling through the Essex airport on Friday 23 August, some of them Taylor Swift fans travelling home to Europe.
The previous busiest day was also the fourth Sunday in August: 24 August 2018.
Stansted’s sister hub, Manchester airport, is growing even faster and is now established as the third UK airport after Heathrow and Gatwick. Passenger numbers increased in August by 8.8 per cent, compared with 4.9 per cent at Stansted and 5.5 per cent at Heathrow.
Ken O’Toole, chief executive of the owner of Manchester and Stansted airports, MAG, said: “I am proud of the consistently strong operational performance we have delivered throughout the summer, meaning people were able to focus on relaxing and starting their holidays as soon as they set foot in our airports.”
