Heathrow reports 7.8 million passengers in August

London Heathrow processed 7.8 million passengers in August, according to airport figures, a fall of 2.1% compared with the same month a year earlier.

Traffic from Asia Pacific rose 1.2% to 989,000 passengers and African routes grew 2% to 302,000. Those increases were outweighed by a 19.8% drop in Middle East traffic to 668,000 passengers. North American numbers fell 1.1% to 2 million, while European Union traffic was close to flat, edging down 0.3% to 2.8 million.

For the year to date the airport has handled 55.7 million passengers, 0.4% fewer than in the equivalent period of last year. Asia Pacific leads growth over the eight months at 6.6%, ahead of Africa at 5.5% and non-EU Europe at 2.6%.

Aircraft movements in August totalled 41,048, down 1.3% year-on-year. Asia Pacific movements climbed 8.8% to 4,077 and African movements rose 5.2% to 1,254. Latin American movements were up 3.8% and North American traffic was broadly level. The Middle East recorded the sharpest decline, with movements down 22.5% to 2,054, and EU movements fell 2.2% to 18,408.

Between January and August Heathrow recorded 312,559 air transport movements, 1.7% fewer than a year earlier. Asia Pacific was the fastest-growing market across the period, up 8.5%, with Africa up 4.1%.

Cargo handled in August reached 137,115 tonnes, a 3.1% increase year-on-year. Asia Pacific cargo rose 13.3% to 39,537 tonnes.