The integration of Bmi into British Airways helped Heathrow to carry a record number of passengers in March.
The UK’s hub airport last month catered for 5.9 million passengers which was an increase of 3.9 per cent on the same month in 2012 and a new record for March.
Average load factor also increased by 2.4 percentage points to 75.8 per cent which was another March record, while the average number of seats per aircraft rose by 1.8 per cent to 199.3.
Heathrow said that BA’s integration of Bmi’s former services at the airport had been the “main driver” behind these three record performances.
The airport saw European traffic in March rise by 7.4 per cent despite the continuing eurozone crisis with strong growth to Italy, France and Germany.
There was also growth to all of the emerging BRIC countries, particularly China where passenger numbers rose 15.1 per cent. India (+3.9 per cent), Russia (+3 per cent) and Brazil (+2.9 per cent) also saw traffic increases from Heathrow during March.
The Middle East was the global region with the fastest year-on-year growth last month with a 9.2 per cent rise. Latin American traffic rose by 3.9 per cent while there was a 1.4 per cent rise on North American routes.
heathrowairport.com