UK. London Heathrow Airport handled 5.27 million passengers in February, a +5.5% increase when adjusted to remove last year’s leap day.
The airport said growth was the result of “larger, fuller, quieter and cleaner” aircraft as well as a “more resilient UK economy” that saw travel demand climb higher than expected.
Heathrow has also launched a new sustainability strategy – Heathrow 2.0 – which aims to make the airport a centre of excellence for aviation. The strategy includes the goal of reducing the airport’s and the industry’s “environmental impacts while maximising economic opportunities throughout the UK”.
Commercial partners and suppliers were asked for their input in forming the new strategy.
The airport has invested an initial £500,000 (US$608,680) in its first ‘R&D incubator’ to minimise noise and carbon emissions. Goals include the use of 100% renewable electricity at the airport from 2017 in a major step toward creating a zero-carbon airport, Heathrow said.
“Heathrow is off to a flying start in 2017 – we’re delivering the best service of any major airport in Europe to record numbers of passengers and boosting British exports with record cargo volumes,” said Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye.
“Our new sustainability leadership strategy will make Heathrow a centre of excellence for sustainable aviation and planning for expansion is firmly underway with SMEs across Britain lining up to help us deliver it.”
Elsewhere, Airports Council International named Heathrow as the ‘Best Airport in Europe’ among airports with over 40 million passengers in its 2016 Airport Service Quality Awards.
The awards are voted for by passengers. Some 82% of passengers rated their Heathrow experience as either ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ in 2016.
Heathrow Chief Operating Officer Normand Boivin said: “Our team are continually striving to deliver the world’s best airport service. 2016 was an exciting year for us at Heathrow with the introduction of additional new e-gates making arrivals even smoother across all terminals, the installation of new generation instrument landing systems to improve punctuality in poor weather, a wave of new luxury lounges across all terminals and the opening of Terminal 5’s first ever ‘Personal Shopping’ suite.
“In 2017 we look forward to a wave of new luxury lounges for passengers, the beginning of construction on Terminal 2’s very own hotel and the reopening of Gordon Ramsay’s much loved Plane Food in Terminal 5.”