Heathrow urges UK to open up following massive losses

Heathrow Airport, London's largest aviation hub, has urged the UK government to open up travel for vaccinated patients as its recovery continues to lag behind other major European hubs, seeing its pandemic losses shoot up to nearly £3 billion (€3.5 billion).

It reports fewer than four million people travelled via the airport in the first six months of 2021 - roughly equivalent to 18 days of service in 2019 and continues to haemorrhage funds owing to tight restrictions on travel imposed by the British government.

The airport was by far Europe's busiest before the pandemic but has suffered significantly reduced demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

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The transport sector, particularly air travel, was among the sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, as governments across the globe closed their borders to minimise the spread.

In all, the airport has forecast around 21.5 million passengers - equivalent to roughly one-quarter of the population of the UK - will travel through Heathrow in 2021, which it hopes will be driven by demand for summer holidays as countries begin easing lockdown restrictions in the coming months.

In 2020, the airport saw a little over 22 million people travelling through it - a significant decline from the record-breaking 80.8 million passengers for 2019.

For the first six months of 2021 alone, Heathrow recorded a net revenue loss of £787 million (€918 million).

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow's chief said in a statement: "The UK is emerging from the worst effects of the health pandemic, but is falling behind its EU rivals in international trade by being slow to remove restrictions.

"Replacing PCR tests with lateral flow tests and opening up to EU and US vaccinated travellers at the end of July will start to get Britain’s economic recovery off the ground."

Heathrow has increased its liquidity by 49% to £4.8 billion since the start of the pandemic, which should provide cover until October 2022 in the worst scenarios where passenger traffic provides no revenue.

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The airport will continue to mandate masks, encourage social distancing and require proof of immunisation in order to "build passenger trust" and get people travelling again.

In a statement, the airport also expressed hope the UK government could use the pandemic to increase gains in sector decarbonisation in the hopes of making aviation more sustainable and pushing towards the country's ambitious net-zero goals.

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