The number of passengers travelling through Heathrow has returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since virus lockdowns began, the airport has said.

In September this year 7.1 million people travelled through the UK’s largest airport, a high not seen since February 2020, before COVID-19 restrictions were implemented.

The traffic numbers are ahead of the 2019 pre-pandemic year and up 22% on last year, Heathrow said in a trading update on Wednesday morning.

The airport had struggled to recoup traffic levels as business and long haul travel were slower to recover than passenger numbers from European countries.

Most recent figures, for September and the year up to last month, show the majority of people coming through Heathrow were from Europe.

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In the year from October to September more than 25.4 million people travelled from Europe with the second greatest number, 19.4 million, coming from the United States.

The third greatest source of traffic in the year was the Asia Pacific region: 9.1 million people from the area came through the airport.

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So far in 2023, 59.3 million passengers have travelled through Heathrow. For the year up to September the traveller count is 76.7 million.

Airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair have recovered quicker. In November last year easyJet said its bookings returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, while Ryanair reported record passenger numbers the same month.

Heathrow reached the milestone in the last monthly update overseen by chief executive John Holland-Kaye.

Mr Holland-Kaye will hand over the job to Thomas Woldbye on 18 October after being in charge for nearly a decade.

He said: “It has been a privilege to lead the very talented team which, in less than a decade, transformed Heathrow into a hub airport that the whole nation can be proud of.

“We have built a solid legacy for my successor – Heathrow is now a customer service business, with a clear path to net zero by 2050 and a plan to grow and to connect all of Britain to global growth.”

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