Leading European hub London Heathrow and Frankfurt increased passenger traffic during March despite the massive disruption caused by the Iran war.
Both airports saw huge slumps in traffic to the Middle East last month but this was more than offset by significant increases in passengers travelling to other destinations — particularly to Asia-Pacific and Africa. Demand was also boosted by an earlier Easter holiday period this year than in 2025.
Heathrow said that Middle East traffic fell to 294,000 passengers in March, which was a drop of 51 per cent compared with the same month in 2025. Conversely, traffic to Asia-Pacific rose by 31 per cent year-on-year to 1.12 million for the month, while passenger numbers to African destinations was up by 23 per cent to 323,000.
There were smaller percentage rises to North America and Latin America of 6.8 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively in March. Traffic to European destinations also rose by around 11.5 per cent year-on-year during the month.
Heathrow said that the shifting of demand away from the Middle East meant it catered for 6.6 million passengers in March, up by 6.9 per cent compare with March 2025. The airport added that it had seen a 10 per cent rise in transfer passengers during the month as it “temporarily absorbed demand from elsewhere”.
Despite the traffic increase, the UK hub said that the outlook for the next few months was “uncertain” due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye added: “We’re doing everything we can to support airlines and passengers as travel trends shift during the Middle East crisis. While Heathrow’s long-haul network absorbed demand in March, the outlook for the next few months remains uncertain.
“I’m proud of what colleagues have achieved to quickly adapt and continue giving passengers a great service during difficult times.”
Heathrow said that its operations had not been affected by “knock-on impacts to global supply chains”, including the supply of aviation fuel. But it would continue to “monitor the situation and liaise with government and airlines to protect passengers’ journeys”.
Fears have been growing that European airports could soon face a shortage of aviation fuel unless the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened to shipping.
Frankfurt Airport also saw traffic grow in March, with passenger numbers rising by 2.1 per cent year-on-year to 4.7 million for the month.
Fraport, which operates Germany’s largest hub airport, said that it had achieved the growth despite the impact of the Iran war and two strikes by Lufthansa staff during March, which affected around 100,000 of the airline’s passengers.
Frankfurt’s passenger traffic to the Middle East fell by 68.6 per cent to around 78,000 in March compared with the same month last year. But there was “robust” growth to destinations such as China and India, which both saw 22 per cent year-on-year rises in passengers, and Thailand (up by 32 per cent). Traffic to Africa also shot up by 22 per cent.
European airlines have been quick to divert capacity away from the Middle East since the start of the Iran war by redeploying aircraft on additional long-haul flights to Asia and Africa.