London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) broke passenger records in July 2024, retaining its spot as the busiest airport in Europe for the first half of the year.
A total of 7.9 million passengers traveled through LHR Airport in July 2024. Six of its busiest ever departure days came after July 22, 2024, when schools broke up for the summer holiday period.
The airport said that prior to July 2024, it had never surpassed 1.8 million passengers in a week. This number has now been achieved three weeks in a row from July 8-28, 2024.
July 2024’s data places Heathrow ahead of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS), Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Madrid International Airport (MAD) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) in terms of passenger numbers.
The following cities were the most popular destinations for passengers departing from Heathrow:
- Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)
- Larnaca International Airport (LCA)
- Doha International Airport (DOH)
- Dublin Airport (DUB)
- Dubai International Airport (DXB)
- New York John F Kennedy Airport (JFK)
There were also big traffic boosts for the following US destinations:
- Orlando International Airport (MCO)
- Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
- San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
- Boston Airport (BOS)
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Lost passengers due to ETA fee
Despite the record-breaking success of July’s records, Heathrow said it had lost 90,000 passengers since the introduction of the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) scheme in 2023, which requires a fee of £10.
ETAs were introduced in November 2023 for people entering or transiting through the United Kingdom without legal residence or a visa.
An ETA is required for nationals of Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
“This is devastating for our hub competitiveness. We urge the Government to review the inclusion of airside transit passengers; every little bit of extra competitiveness that the Government can deliver for aviation will help deliver vital growth for the whole of the UK economy,” LHR Heathrow said in a statement.
“Team GB’s performance in Paris has been an inspiration to the nation and to Team Heathrow. In July, we were smashing a passenger record almost every single day and we’re chasing down our never before seen goal of serving 8 million passengers in a single month,” Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said in a statement.
“I’m proud that although there were a few potential challenges which could have caused us to stumble, our team remained focused on the prize of making every journey better and delivered a medal-winning start to the summer getaway,” Woldbye added.