London Heathrow Loses Title of Europe’s Top Airport
London Heathrow Loses Title of Europe’s Top Airport
(Bloomberg) -- London Heathrow has lost its title as Europe’s largest airport, falling behind Paris Charles de Gaulle as the pandemic continues to hurt U.K. traffic.
The number of passengers traveling through the London hub fell 69% to 19 million in the first nine months of the year, slightly below its French counterpart, Heathrow Airport Holdings said Wednesday, adding that Amsterdam and Frankfurt aren’t far behind. The U.K. company also reported a 1.5 billion-pound ($1.96 billion) third-quarter loss.
Chief Executive Officer John Holland-Kaye blamed the drop in travelers on rising Covid-19 cases and slow progress by the U.K. government to introduce testing to help reopen borders with countries classed as high risk.
“Unless we take action to protect our economy and remain a global trading nation we’re going to fall behind,” the CEO said in an interview. “The French have taken a very active approach to reopening their borders safely. They started testing back in June while the U.K. was introducing blanket quarantine.”
Holland-Kaye has been at the forefront of calls by the aviation industry for the U.K. to introduce passenger testing and shorten quarantine requirements to boost demand. The country’s government is in discussions with U.S. counterparts to introduce a plan for passengers between Heathrow and New York to fly with just tests, the CEO said.
Testing Plan
The proposal would involve a negative PCR diagnostic test within 72 hours before flying and another using one of the quick Oxford LAMP versions to take place on arrival, avoiding the need for quarantine.
If the U.K. and U.S. governments make progress on the discussions, the deal could be agreed to as early as Thanksgiving, the CEO said. If not, France is also interested and would likely step in ahead of the U.K., he said.
Under the current U.K. system, countries are moveed on and off a list of safe destinations, leading to last-minute disruption for passengers. Those traveling from countries not in that category must self-isolate for 14 days.
The U.K. has created a travel task force with a goal to implement a broader testing regime by Dec. 1. The body will look at how testing can safely reduce the time spent in quarantine, for example by being negative after five days of isolation.
Heathrow cut its passenger forecast for 2020 by 6.6 million to 22.6 million. It expects 2021 volumes to come in 54% below 2019 at 37.1 million passengers, based on a testing regime in the first quarter of 2020 and a vaccine in the final three months of the year.
The airport said it has ample liquidity at 4.5 billion pounds after selling bonds and signing a new financing facility.
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