Routes Trivia: Hitting Capacity at Heathrow

In its official traffic figures for March 2012, airport operator BAA has revealed that its largest facility, London Heathrow has handled more than 70 million passengers in a rolling 12 month period for the first time ever. The milestone was passed last month when the airport handled 5.7 million passengers, up 6.9 per cent on March 2011.

"Reaching 70 million passengers at Heathrow is a major milestone, demonstrating the resilience of the airport in an otherwise challenging economic environment. Increases in load factors drove this; however Heathrow continues to operate at 99.2% capacity - placing constraints on airlines’ ability to introduce new flights to the emerging economies which are so vital to UK economic growth," said Colin Matthews, Chief Executive Officer, BAA.

Heathrow’s performance was particularly notable for the 4.2 percentage point increase in load factors, to 73.4% compared to March last year, continuing an upward trend over the course of the past year. Traffic from Heathrow to the BRIC countries saw notable growth compared with March last year, with an increase of 62.3% in traffic to and from Brazil.

In the table below, using data from OAG’s Schedules iNet, we highlight the top 25 destinations from the airport last year by seat capacity and compare these destinations with statistics from 20 years earlier.

SCHEDULED AIR SERVICES FROM LONDON HEATHROW (non-stop weekly departures

Rank

Destination

Flights (2011)

Capacity (2011)

Capacity (1991)

% Capacity Change (1991-2011)

Rank Change Since 1991

1

New York (JFK)

6,304

1,841,138

1,277,646

44.1 %

+ 2

2

Dubai International (DXB)

3,672

1,265,947

106,629

1087.2 %

+ 78

3

Hong Kong International (HKG)

3,195

1,097,579

204,571

436.5 %

+ 44

4

Frankfurt (FRA)

6,334

1,037,046

765,871

35.4 %

+ 4

5

Dublin (DUB)

6,188

1,029,760

1,065,501

(-3.4) %

+ 1

6

Singapore Changi (SIN)

2,532

963,381

388,725

147.8 %

+ 15

7

Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)

6,342

962,970

1,284,449

(-25.0) %

(- 5)

8

Paris CDG (CDG)

5,661

908,313

1,865,197

(-51.3) %

(- 7)

9

Los Angeles International (LAX)

2,775

861,143

421,884

104.1 %

+ 10

10

Madrid Barajas (MAD)

4,677

851,976

491,472

73.4 %

(- 6)

11

Newark Liberty International (EWR)

3,581

827,632

218,606

278.6 %

+ 30

12

Edinburgh (EDI)

5,515

812,241

1,105,074

(-26.5) %

(- 7)

13

Munich Franz Josef Strauss (MUC)

4,878

790,064

388,558

103.3 %

+ 9

14

Chicago O’Hare International (ORD)

3,240

760,011

267,943

183.6 %

+ 19

15

Geneva Cointrin (GVA)

5,074

692,874

511,066

35.6 %

-

16

Boston Logan International (BOS)

2,806

686,586

216,346

217.4 %

+ 28

17

Rome Fiumicino (FCO)

3,911

682,730

514,790

32.6 %

(- 4)

18

New Delhi Indira Gandhi (DEL)

2,512

669,069

202,216

230.9 %

+ 31

19

Zürich Kloten (ZRH)

4,223

647,545

681,885

(-5.0) %

(- 9)

20

Washington Dulles (IAD)

2,725

639,579

279,664

128.7 %

+ 11

21

Copenhagen Kastrup (CPH)

3,926

630,220

433,486

45.4 %

(- 3)

22

Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji (BOM)

2,182

624,212

235,811

164.7 %

+ 15

23

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK)

1,764

620,722

237,166

161.7 %

+ 13

24

Manchester (MAN)

4,700

604,327

693,318

(-12.8) %

(- 13)

25

Stockholm Arlanda (ARN)

3,907

576,137

368,731

56.2 %

(- 2)

Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…