London Heathrow Airport achieved a new record for annual traffic as it catered for 84.5 million passengers during 2025, despite its constrained capacity.
The UK hub airport’s new milestone was only 0.7 per cent higher than the previous traffic record of 83.9 million, set in 2024, with the number of flights only going up by 0.8 per cent year-on-year to just under 480,000 services in 2025.
Heathrow’s final tally for last year was boosted by its busiest-ever December with traffic rising by 1.6 per cent year-on-year to reach 7.2 million passengers for the festive month.
The airport outperformed its 2024’s traffic numbers in nine of 12 months last year, while 1 August was Heathrow’s busiest-ever day with 270,000 travellers using the airport.
EU destinations again recorded the largest number of passengers to and from Heathrow in 2025 with 28.4 million travellers, up by 1.1 per cent on the previous year. North America was the second biggest market with 20.6 million, which represented a dip of 0.3 per cent on 2024’s traffic.
Other regions to see higher traffic in 2025 were Africa, which was up by 2.1 per cent year-on-year, Middle East (+2.8 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (+2.6 per cent).
But there were declines in passenger numbers on domestic UK flights, down by 1.7 per cent year-on-year. Traffic was also reduced by 1.8 per cent on flights to and from Latin America.
Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye said: “December’s record-breaking performance shows the strength of demand for Heathrow and the benefit to passengers of the great service our colleagues are providing.
“Last year, there was no hub airport in Europe that was more punctual than Heathrow and we look forward to building on that success in 2026.”
The airport faces another crucial year in 2026 in its long-running attempts to add a controversial third runway.
While the UK government has formally backed Heathrow’s £49 billion expansion proposal, the plans have to be formally drafted in a new Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) this summer, which will then face parliamentary scrutiny and likely legal challenges from opponents of the airport’s expansion.
“With the government’s support for our expansion plans, and the right regulatory framework from the CAA to secure private investment, we can unlock even more of that connectivity, trade and economic growth for the UK,” said Woldbye.
A final planning decision on the expansion scheme is currently due to be made by 2029, with the government hoping that a new runway will be operational by 2035 at the earliest.