The west London airport saw more than 7.4 million jet-setters use its facilities last month, after a surge in demand for flights to European cities
The west London airport saw more than 7.4 million jet-setters use its facilities last month, after a surge in demand for flights to European cities.
This was an increase of 2.1 per cent during the same month last year, with passenger numbers during the first 10 months of the year up just 0.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2024 because of capacity constraints.
It comes as the airport prepares to respond to the government’s request for further information about its expansion proposals, which include building a full-length 3,500-metre runway and moving the M25 motorway.
It described this as the ‘only option that can deliver growth for the whole country during construction and once open’.
Elsewhere, the boss of Heathrow admitted yesterday he bought himself an "extra-loud phone" after sleeping through multiple calls when a power cut led to the airport's closure in March this year.
Senior staff had decided to suspend all flights because of a fire at Hayes electrical substation, which supplies about a third of Heathrow’s electricity needs.
Thomas Woldbye slept through the blaze, which started late on the evening of March 20 and caused flights to be suspended until about 6pm the next day.
He had not been woken by alerts sent to his mobile, because it had gone into silent mode “without him being aware”.
Asked by Ruth Kelly, the former transport secretary, at a Heathrow-commissioned inquiry if he had since purchased an "extra-loud phone", the airport chief replied: “Oh, absolutely. And more.”
Mr Woldbye, who was paid £3.2m last year, said he was "personally devastated" by his phone being on silent for the incident, which disrupted the journeys of 270,000 passengers.
But he added that “nothing in this world should be depending on me alone” and “all the right people were there to take the right decisions”.
The Heathrow chief added that “lots of procedures” had changed since March to ensure that recovering from another sudden power loss would be “faster”.
