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The United Kingdom’s busiest airline hub says that Santa will be far from the only person taking to its airspace this Christmas. London’s Heathrow Airport says that it is expecting to serve a record number of passengers on December 25.
“This year has been all about providing high levels of service for record amounts of passengers at Heathrow, and November was no different,” said Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye in a statement accompanying the numbers. “As we embrace the festive season, our focus remains on ensuring smooth, joyful journeys — whether it is helping passengers get away for Christmas to reunite with their loved ones, or making sure cargo reaches its destination on time.”
The airport says that it is looking at a 21% increase in traffic this year compared to 2023 when it serviced 142,000 flyers. That works out to 172,000 passengers, a big jump over what was already Heathrow’s “busiest Christmas day ever.” Heathrow pointed out that the harried holiday would cap a year where a record 77 million people have used it, a 6% increase over 2023.
U.S.-based airlines have been echoing Heathrow’s optimism going into the holiday season. United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue (JBLU-0.72%) have all increased their year-end 2024 revenue guidance on the back of increasing bookings.
“Booking performance for travel in November and December was higher than expectations immediately following the U.S. presidential election,” JetBlue told investors when it raised its expectations for the period.
United, in particular, said last month that it has 10% more trips going to Europe this December, boosted by tourists eager to visit famous Christmas markets in what is its “busiest holiday season ever,” with London among its most popular destinations. The carrier plans to run 60 nonstop flights to the continent a day to accommodate the demand.