Heathrow loses billions

London: Britain’s Heathrow Airport plunged to a £2 billion ($NZ3.8 billion) annual loss after passenger numbers collapsed during the pandemic to levels last seen in the 1970s.

Heathrow called on the government to agree a common international travel standard to allow passengers to start flying again in the summer and to provide business tax breaks for airports to help them ride out the crisis.

The airport, west of London, is hopeful travel markets will reopen from midMay after a government announcement about easing lockdown on Tuesday.

Still Britain’s biggest airport, Heathrow last year lost its title as the busiest in Europe to Paris as its flight schedules contracted more than its rival’s.

The airport said yesterday that during 2020, passenger numbers shrank 73% to 22 million people, half of those having travelled during January and February before Covid19 shut down global travel.

The airport sank to a £2 billion loss before tax on revenues which were down 62% to £1.18 billion, but Heathrow said it had £3.9 billion of liquidity and that could keep it going until 2023. — Reuters