London’s Heathrow airport said passenger numbers in February remained nearly 50% down on pre-Covid-pandemic levels and warned it faced headwinds from the war in Ukraine.
The British airport operator said only 2.8 million passengers travelling through its terminals, 15% below forecast.
“Demand from inbound leisure and business travel remains suppressed by the testing and quarantine requirements that are still in place in nearly two-thirds of the markets we serve,” it said on Friday.
“While we hope that these will be removed, we also face headwinds from higher fuel prices, longer flight times to destinations impacted by airspace closures, concerns from U.S. travellers over war in Europe and the likelihood of new ‘Variants of Concern’, which together create huge uncertainty over the passenger forecasts this year.”
