Britain's Heathrow Airport has today reported a first-half profit, boosted by robust passenger traffic as travel demand remained steadfast.
It also today urged the new UK government to consider policies to help the country better compete with European travel hubs.
Heathrow Airport said a record 39.8 million passengers travelled through its terminals in the first half of the year, an increase of 7.3% from the 37.1 million passengers during the same period last year.
In the first half of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, the total was 38.8 million.
Britain's busiest airport said it was prepared for travel in summer, a busy period, while maintaining its core profit forecast of £1.94 billion for the year.
Heathrow reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of £178m for the first half of 2024, compared to a loss of £139m a year earlier, while revenue slipped 2.9% to £1.69 billion.
Heathrow warned that "competitive drags hang over the airport with bureaucratic tax and border policies pushing passengers" to other destinations, and encouraged Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government to back Britain's aviation industry.
The Labour government is hoping to attract tens of billions of pounds of private capital into new and growing industries to help speed up the economy.
Heathrow said today that it was conducting an internal review of its work so far and the current status of the sector to inform its plans of running the airport and creating capacity.
It had averted union strikes in May over proposed plans to outsource hundreds of roles after discussions, while it is also clearing shortfalls in its settlement with the Civil Aviation Authority over current regulatory framework.
