Paris Charles de
Gaulle has overtaken Heathrow to become Europe’s largest airport for the first
time ever, Heathrow’s CEO has said while announcing the airport’s third quarter
results.
John Holland-Kaye said that part of the reason was that all three of
Heathrow’s continental rivals have implemented testing regimes.
Holland-Kaye
said: “Britain is falling behind because we’ve been too slow to embrace
passenger testing. European leaders acted quicker and now their economies are
reaping the benefits.
“Paris has overtaken Heathrow as Europe’s largest airport
for the first time ever, and Frankfurt and Amsterdam are quickly gaining
ground. Let’s make Britain a winner again.
“Bringing in pre-departure Covid tests
and partnering with our US allies to open a pilot airbridge to America will
kickstart our economic recovery and put the UK back ahead of our European
rivals.”
He said Heathrow’s
losses had widened to £1.5 billion in the first nine months of the year as
passenger numbers in Q3 remained down over 84 per cent on the previous year. Q3
revenue fell 72 per cent to £239 million.
The airport said passenger numbers
are now forecast to be 22.6 million in 2020 and 37.1 million in 2021, compared
to the airport’s June forecast of 29.2 million in 2020 and 62.8 million in 2021.
Holland-Kaye said the airport had reduced
monthly cash burn by over 30 per cent, cutting at least £300 million of
operating costs and cancelling or pausing more than £650 million of capital
projects. It said it had cash reserves sufficient for the next 12 months even
under an extreme scenario with no revenue, and well into 2023 under its current
forecast.
This week, ACI Europe has
warned that nearly 200 airports in Europe face insolvency by year end.