London Heathrow set a new annual record for passenger numbers in 2024 with 83.9 million travellers using the UK’s hub airport during the year.
The airport was boosted by a record-breaking December with traffic of more than 7 million passengers during the festive holiday month – up by 5.6 per cent on the same month in 2023.
Heathrow’s final tally for 2024 beat the airport’s previous record of 80.9 million passengers in 2019 and was up by 5.9 per cent on 2023’s total of 79.1 million travellers.
The airport named New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and Madrid as among its top destinations during 2024, while domestic flights within the UK saw the largest year-on-year percentage increase in passengers with a 10 per cent rise on the previous year to reach 4.66 million.
EU destinations recorded the largest number of passengers from Heathrow at 28.1 million, which was an increase of 7.4 per cent on 2023, followed by North America at 20.6 million (up 3.3 per cent year-on-year) and Asia Pacific at 10.7 million (an increase of 9.9 per cent).
The only global region to see a drop in traffic from Heathrow in 2024 was Africa with a 7.8 per cent year-on-year reduction to a total of 3.3 million passengers.
Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye added: “2024 was an exciting and a record-breaking year at Heathrow - I'm proud of all my colleagues and our partners who worked so hard to deliver great experiences for more passengers than ever before.
“In 2025, our journey towards better value for our customers will continue by investing in the kind of facilities our passengers and airlines are looking for. We aim to become more innovative to ensure that our airport delivers for the whole of the UK.”
Heathrow, which announced a major programme of infrastructure upgrades in December, said that 2025 was “off to a strong start” and it is forecasting traffic of 84.2 million during the year, which would represent an increase of around 0.4 per cent on 2024’s performance.