Traffic down in March at Heathrow - but up at other airports

Traffic at London Heathrow was down 2.8% in March compared to the same month last year.

The airport also revealed it has lost its crown to Dubai Airport as having the highest number of international passengers over a two-month period for the first time. The world’s third busiest airport welcomed 5.8 million travellers in March, despite seats per aircraft increasing by 1.9%, but passengers per aircraft decreased 3% to 146.6.

Heathrow says the reduction and load factors, reflect the shift of the Easter holidays into April this year, from March. Heathrow CEO Colin Matthews, says: “Passenger numbers were in line with expectations in March, consistent with the Easter bank holiday moving from March last year to April this year.

“Dubai’s announcement that it has overtaken Heathrow in the last two months shows that the UK will soon no longer have the world’s number one airport for international passenger traffic."

London Gatwick meanwhile, welcomed 2.7 million passengers in March, an increase of 5.1% on 2013, or 131,500 passengers, more than 2013.

Stewart Wingate, London Gatwick chief executive, says: “This has been a successful and exciting year for Gatwick that has seen steady growth, the completion of spending over £1 billion on improving the passenger experience and offering new routes that satisfy the demands of business and leisure travellers."

Edinburgh Airport enjoyed a 4.9% increase in travellers in March, with more than 730,000 travellers using the Scottish airport.  Growth at Glasgow Airport has also continued with almost 532,000 people travelling through the airport in March, a rise of 4.1% compared to the same period last year. Copenhagen Airport's passenger numbers for March were up by 4.8% year on year, with close to two million passing through, which was a new record for the month.