Simple Flying - Jake Hardiman
All in all, London Heathrow Airport handled some 16.9 million passengers between January 1st and March 31st, 2023. This represents an impressive 74.2% increase compared to the first quarter of 2022, when it processed just 9.7 million passengers in the same period.
These figures saw Heathrow outrank the likes of Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), Frankfurt Airport (FRA), and Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to remain Europe's busiest airport. It was also the second-busiest in the world in terms of international travel during the first quarter of 2023. However, it is still facing losses.
At face value, Heathrow's economic performance in the last quarter appears to have been promising. Indeed, its revenue of £814 million ($1.016 billion) represented a 57.8% increase compared to the £516 million ($644 million) generated in the same period last year. Cash generated from operations also rose by 34.5%.
However, despite this promising financial growth, Heathrow Airport still made an overall adjusted pre-tax loss of £139 million ($173.5 million) in the first quarter of 2023. While this is still 37.7% better than the figure of £223 million ($278 million) that it lost pre-tax accounting for adjustments in Q1 of 2022, it is still far from ideal.
