December traffic figures – BAA airports

Heathrow traffic and business commentary December 2012 and calendar year 2012

• Record for the calendar year
• Busiest December on record

5.6 million passengers passed through Heathrow in December, a record for the month and up 2.0% on December 2011. This took the number of passengers for 2012 to almost 70 million, the highest ever for a calendar year at Heathrow, and an increase of 0.9% compared with 2011.

Calendar year 2012

Heathrow’s performance in 2012 was led by North Atlantic traffic which increased 3.2%. Strength in services with Brazil, up 21.6% (due to more flights), the Middle East and central Asia, up 3.4% (due partially to recovery in key markets from the unrest in the region that impacted 2011) and East Asia, up 6.2% (due partly to recovery from 2011’s Japanese tsunami) was offset particularly by weakness in African and Indian traffic, down 5.7% and 3.4% respectively, due to airlines reducing or ceasing services.

Heathrow’s European traffic increased modestly, up 0.5%. However, there were significant variances, reflecting economic conditions, with Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain seeing a collective passenger reduction of 4.5% over the course of 2012. Greece experienced the largest reduction (-7.3%) followed by Italy (-6.8%). Offsetting this, Germany’s traffic increased by 2.3% and France’s traffic rose by 0.6%. Domestic traffic was up slightly, by 0.5%.

The BRIC economies performed well throughout 2012, collectively up 2.4%. Of these, Brazil saw the biggest increase, followed by China, which saw passenger numbers rise 5.9%, whilst Russia had a 4.5% increase in passenger numbers.

Traffic in 2012 was characterised by higher load factors – which show how full the average flight was – at 75.6%, versus 75.2% in 2011 and a record. There were also more seats per aircraft (197.4 versus 194.8 in 2011). These are the key drivers of the modest growth that can be expected in Heathrow’s traffic as long as it operates within its current capacity constraints – illustrated by the fact that the 471,341 flights Heathrow operated in 2012 remain close to the cap of 480,000 per year.

Cargo was down 1.3% for the year as a whole.

December 2012

December 2012 saw European traffic rise 4.0% compared with a year earlier, whilst North Atlantic traffic was up 0.6%. Middle East and Central Asia traffic grew 3.9%, whilst East Asia recorded 14.8% growth, boosted by route changes.

Traffic to and from Spain was down 9.4% on the same month last year and down 4.2% for Greece. However it rose 7.4% for Italy and 7.9% for Portugal. The Nordic countries performed strongly, with Norway up 26.8%, Finland up 7.2% and Sweden up 6.0%.

Of the BRIC economies, China saw the biggest increase on last December (23.2%), followed by India (4.0%), and Russia (3.4%). Only Brazil saw a reduction, down 3.1% on December 2011.

Load factors continued to grow in December, up 1.2 percentage points on December 2011 to 74.8%.

Cargo was down 3.5% on December 2011.

Chief Executive for Heathrow, Colin Matthews, said:

“The figures for 2012 show Heathrow is delivering higher passenger numbers despite a tough economic climate. At the same time passenger satisfaction reached record levels. Over the next twelve months we will continue to improve the passenger experience and focus on our investment programme, as we move towards completion of the new Terminal 2.”

View traffic figures for December 2012 and calendar year 2012 (87KB PDF)