London Heathrow airport is recruiting 12,000 new staff as traffic levels pick up ahead of the summer season.
The UK hub said that its passenger numbers in March reached 4.2 million – the highest monthly total since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago.
The airport said this increase in traffic was being “driven by outbound leisure” at weekends, while business travel remained “weak” with Covid levels currently high in the UK and testing requirements still in place in many destinations.
Heathrow added that “resources are stretched” as the aviation industry rebuilds capacity but it was increasing staffing levels “as fast as possible” with plans to recruit 12,000 new employees.
The airport said it was also working with the UK’s Border Force to ensure “sufficient levels of resource” were in place to cope with the higher number of passengers returning to the UK over the Easter holidays.
John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s CEO, said: “It is fantastic to see the airport coming back to life after two years, and I want to thank all team Heathrow colleagues for working together to serve our passengers. Everyone at Heathrow is doing everything we can to make sure passengers get on their way as smoothly and safely as possible.”
The airport added that it was “unclear” if the current surge in passenger numbers was sustainable or what impact the war in Ukraine, high fuel prices and low economic growth would have on “medium term” demand.