A record 5.4m passengers passed through Heathrow in November, a record for the month, which was up 3.1% on November 2011.

 

Heathrow Airport which has now dropped the name “BAA” said that part of the percentage rise was thanks to the late half term, as well as disruption in November last year. It added that taking these and other factors in to account, the results show an underlying increase of 0.4% for the month. Heathrow’s load factor also set a record for the month at 72.8%.

 

The airport company said that North Atlantic traffic was up 2.4% in November and European scheduled passenger numbers up 7.1% compared with last year. Within the latter group of countries, France was up 9.8%, Germany up 9.2% and Italy up 10.7%.

 

Greek traffic continued to be down, however, with a reduction of 14.6% on the same period in 2011. Of the BRIC economies, passenger numbers were up 6% to Brazil, 6.2% to Russia and 12.9% to China, but down 1.3% to India.

 

Heathrow CEO Colin Matthews said: “Passenger figures to the BRIC economies continue to be strong, illustrating the demand for routes to emerging markets. But there’s more demand that the UK can’t meet – because its only hub airport, Heathrow, is full.

 

“Last month we launched our first response to the Government’s Airports Commission, which is looking into this lack of capacity. It concluded there are just three options for government – do nothing, expand Heathrow, or close Heathrow and open a new hub airport elsewhere.”