Heathrow sees start of recovery as JetBlue launches new transatlantic route

Airport sees busiest month since March last year before the pandemic era began

Heathrow said that in July over 1.5 million travellers passed through the airport.

Wed, 11 Aug, 2021 - 15:47

Heathrow Airport said its passenger numbers have started to recover, as JetBlue airline launches a new transatlantic route.

Heathrow said its passenger numbers surged in July as the UK government eased travel restrictions and a recovery was underway, but warned that overall numbers were still down 80% on pre-pandemic levels as many barriers remain.

Heathrow said that in July over 1.5 million travellers passed through the airport, making it the busiest month since March 2020, just before Covid-19 lockdowns began in Europe and travel was essentially stopped.

The airport, the busiest in Britain, and before Covid-19 the busiest in Europe, said that the UK government needed to do more to help travel return to even close to 2019 levels.

Heathrow and airlines like British Airways have criticised Britain for not easing travel restrictions quickly enough despite its fast vaccine roll-out, and for complicated rules which continue to include expensive coronavirus tests.

They want to see the cost of testing reduced and more countries added to the government's list of low-risk countries.

Growing confidence

In a sign of growing confidence in travel, airline JetBlue is making its first foray into transatlantic service, starting flights on the world’s most lucrative air route—from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow.

It’s only the first step in a plan: The airline is also set to begin service from Boston to London within the year.

It’s possible to find a one-way ticket from JFK to Heathrow for $202. It is also offering an affordable business class product, Mint, with 24 enclosed suites on each A321. Those seats are selling from about $1,660 round trip.

The company has hit one a bump in the road, with flights to both Heathrow and Gatwick scaled down to four times a week in September, reflecting reduced demand on a route that typically nets airlines $1 billion annually.

Meanwhile, Dubai Airports reported a 41% drop in first-half passenger traffic, while expressing confidence that fewer travel restrictions and coming events will stoke rising activity through year-end.

The number of people passing through the world’s largest airport by international traffic fell to 10.6 million, as the airport served 68% of its pre-pandemic destinations, the state-owned company said in a statement.

With Expo 2020 Dubai starting in October after a one-year delay and the Dubai Airshow set for November, “we are gearing up for a massive in-rush of visitors to the United Arab Emirates in the next couple of months”, chief executive officer Paul Griffiths said in an interview.

“I think the rebound in traffic for the second half will be much greater than we’ve seen in the first half,” he said, adding that the biggest demand will come from point-to-point traffic “particularly the UK”, Mr Griffiths said.