On Thursday, Heathrow Airport in Britain updated its passenger forecast for 2023, anticipating a significant increase. This comes alongside a substantial reduction in losses for the first three quarters of the year, driven by a surge in summer travel demand that exceeded expectations. The airport, located west of London, now projects it will serve approximately 79.3 million passengers this year, up from the previous estimate of 70 to 78 million.
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Despite the economic pressure from the cost of living, consumers continue to spend on vacations post-pandemic, leading to an increase in global flights and benefiting the airport. CFO Javier Echave shared with Reuters that while they maintain a cautious outlook on the potential impact of living costs on recovery, no significant effects have been observed so far.
The reopening of borders earlier this year has led to a promising rebound in the Asia-Pacific region. Heathrow, which is owned by a consortium that includes Ferrovial Infrastructure Group and investors from Qatar and Canada, reported a pre-tax adjusted loss of 19 million pounds ($22.95 million) for the period ending September 30. This is a marked improvement from the 442 million pound loss reported during the same period last year.
Despite facing high costs due to labor shortages and operational issues last year, which led to a self-imposed limit of 100,000 daily passenger departures in July 2022, Echave is optimistic that Heathrow could return to profitability by the end of this year or early next year. He also mentioned that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has not had any significant economic impact on the airport. Heathrow anticipates that passenger traffic in 2024 will align with pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019 when it served 81 million passengers. Despite resistance from Heathrow and its customers, a plan by Britain's aviation regulator (CAA) to reduce airline charges at Heathrow was approved by competition authorities last week. New CEO Thomas Woldbye stated on Thursday that despite a stringent settlement from the CAA, they are committed to enhancing the airport for their customers.
