Heathrow still struggling to recover from pandemic

HEATHROW Airport has blamed Covid restrictions and the Ukraine war as it still struggles to recover from the start of the pandemic.

According to the airport, its post-pandemic recovery has been complicated by the invasion of Ukraine last month, which has thrown its passenger forecast for 2022 into doubt.

It comes as just 2.8 million passengers travelled through Heathrow Airport last month, 15% less than predicted at the start of the year and nearly half the number of passengers passing through the travel hub before the Covid pandemic. Since travel restrictions began to ease at the beginning of 2022, the airport has reported that airlines have found it difficult to attract passengers travelling to the UK, because of lingering testing and quarantine requirements abroad.

According to Heathrow, nearly two-thirds of the geographical markets served by the airport still have Covid restrictions in place, which is putting foreign travellers off from coming to the UK.

The invasion of Ukraine also looks likely to further complicate the airport’s recovery. After war broke out on February 24, Ukrainian airspace has been closed to commercial flights for safety reasons. The Russian government also retaliated to sanctions by shutting its airspace to Western planes.

The price of gas and oil has risen sharply in response to sanctions and supply chain restrictions, with further price increases expected as the war rages on. Heathrow Airport said this had thrown up problems for airlines, making flights more expensive to run and longer as they now have to avoid Russian airspace.

Nevertheless, the airport still hopes to see high passenger numbers this summer and is making preparations to welcome up to 85% of pre-pandemic passenger numbers.

Heathrow plans to re-open Terminal 4, which shut at the beginning of the pandemic, before July and currently has 12,000 vacancies across the airport.

The airport is also awaiting a decision by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that would allow them to raise funds for improvements.

CEO of Heathrow Airport John Holland-Kaye said: “Aviation’s recovery remains overshadowed by war and Covid uncertainty.

“But we need to ensure we are geared up to meet peak potential demand this summer and are relying on the CAA to make a fair financial settlement that incentivises investment to maintain passenger service and encourages airlines and Heathrow to work together to grow passenger numbers.”