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Heathrow has promised it has a “robust operating plan in place to keep the airport running smoothly” this summer as it faces the twin pressures of record-breaking passenger numbers and potential industrial action.
The UK hub airport is experiencing surging demand for travel across all its key routes, leading it to raise its forecasts for full-year passenger numbers from 81.4mn to 82.4mn, which would beat 2019’s previous record.
“We are seeing growth in all markets and in all classes [of travel],” said chief financial officer Javier Echave.
The announcement comes as Unite union revealed plans for two sets of strikes in May, including contracted refuelling staff over the early May bank holiday. Nearly 800 workers employed by the airport are to walk out for seven days from May 7 in a dispute over plans to outsource some jobs to contractors.
Heathrow, which said there would be no job losses, said it expected the airport to continue to operate normally throughout the strikes.
“I think that the key message is reassurance . . . we expect no disruption,” Echave said.
The two-runway airport has long operated at close to its maximum capacity.
But Echave said airlines had turned to using larger aircraft and shifted an increasing number of their routes from short-haul to long-haul, which allows passenger numbers to rise within the airport’s limits of 480,000 flights a year.
Heathrow boosted its predictions for passenger numbers this year after a record-breaking first quarter in which 18.5mn travellers passed through the airport, driven by growth in Asian routes.
The airport said adjusted pre-tax profits for the quarter were £83mn, swinging from a loss of £139mn in the same period last year.
Heathrow is in the midst of the biggest shake-up of its ownership since its privatisation in the 1990s, after Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial in November said it would sell its 25 per cent stake to Saudi Arabia’s PIF and French buyout group Ardian for £2.4bn.
Three other shareholders — the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, Canada’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Singapore’s GIC — have also exercised a right to try to sell their stakes alongside Ferrovial, leading to a scramble to find buyers for the 60 per cent of the airport that is set to change hands.
Heathrow said it had no current plans to pay its owners a dividend this year, but added that this could “plausibly” change, subject to financial performance.
Gatwick, the UK’s second-largest airport, plans to pay a dividend this year for the first time since the pandemic.
Separately on Wednesday Ryanair pledged to significantly grow in the UK over the next six years, forecasting an increase in passenger numbers by more than 20 per cent from 53mn to 65mn passengers a year by 2030.
But Michael O’Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said the airline “would get there sooner and faster” if the UK cut air passenger duty, a passenger tax on flying.
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