Coronavirus UK: Heathrow Airport records £1.5BILLION loss for the first nine months of 2020

Heathrow Airport today lost its status as Europe’s busiest airport as it recorded a loss of £1.5billion in the first nine months of the year due to Covid-19. 

Passenger numbers between July and September were down by more than 84 per cent compared with the same period in 2019, leading the west London hub to be overtaken by Paris Charles de Gaulle as the busiest in Europe.

Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt are ‘close behind’, Heathrow warned, as chief executive John Holland-Kaye insisted that ‘Britain is falling behind’ because ‘we’ve been too slow to embrace passenger testing’ for Covid-19.

By comparison, coronavirus testing regimes have implemented at all three ‘continental rivals’, the airport said in a statement. 

The airport’s third-quarter revenue fell by 72 per cent year on year to £239million, while earnings before tax and interest dropped to £37million. 

Heathrow’s ceding of its position as Europe’s busiest airport will be a blow to Britain’s global trading ambitions, just when it most needs connectivity with countries outside of the EU ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period.  

Mr Holland-Kaye, a vocal critic of the Government’s Covid-19 strategy, said: ‘Britain is falling behind because we’ve been too slow to embrace passenger testing.

‘European leaders acted quicker and now their economies are reaping the benefits. 

Heathrow has reported a £1.5 billion loss due to restrictions brought on by the pandemic

John Holland-Kaye, chief executive officer of Heathrow Airport, urged passenger testing

‘Paris has overtaken Heathrow as Europe’s largest airport for the first time ever, and Frankfurt and Amsterdam are quickly gaining ground. 

‘Let’s make Britain a winner again. Bringing in pre-departure Covid tests and partnering with our US allies to open a pilot air bridge to America will kickstart our economic recovery and put the UK back ahead of our European rivals.’ 

Earlier this month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched a taskforce to develop methods of reducing the 14-day self-isolation period for people arriving in the UK from non-exempt locations.

He said the Government is considering a ‘test and release regime’ which would still involve a quarantine period of at least a week.

In a statement released today Heathrow also slashed the outlook for next year’s passenger numbers as the pandemic continues to crush demand for flying.

The airport said it now expected 37 million people to travel through the airport in 2021, lowering an earlier forecast made in June by 41 per cent when it guided that 63 million passengers would use it. 

Britain has said it will bring in airport testing by the beginning of December, but Mr Holland-Kaye said it should go further and agree a deal to allow travel between Heathrow and the US.

‘Bringing in pre-departure COVID tests and partnering with our US allies to open a pilot airbridge to America will kickstart our economic recovery and put the UK back ahead of our European rivals,’ he said in a statement.

Tightening travel restrictions this autumn have hit airlines and airports, ruining hopes for a recovery. 

Heathrow said its finances ‘remain robust’, with £4.5billion of liquidity, and it had sufficient cash reserves for the next 12 months even if travel stopped completely, despite the crushing blow to its business inflicted by Covid-19 restrictions.  

The airport is owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, the Qatar Investment Authority and China Investment Corp among others. 

Industry body ACI Europe warned yesterday that nearly 200 airports across the continent face insolvency in the coming months unless demand for air travel starts to recover by the end of the year.

Airports Council International Europe said 193 out of 740 airports in the region will soon struggle to find enough money to carry on.

Director General Olivier Jankovec said: ‘The figures published today paint a dramatically bleak picture.

‘Eight months into the crisis all of Europe’s airports are burning through cash to remain open, with revenues far from covering the costs of operations.

‘In the midst of a second wave, ensuring safe air travel continues to be our primary concern. It’s crucial that we reduce the risks of importation and dissemination as much as possible. But surely we can do a much better job of reducing those risks by testing air passengers rather than with quarantines that cannot be enforced.’  

How Covid has crushed 2020 travel plans – leaving many holiday companies facing a bleak winter… 

By Jo Tweedy

The travel industry has faced plenty of adversity before 2020, with terrorism, economic downturns and the previous threat of pandemics – including the 2003 SARS outbreak – all impacting travel agents and tour operators in the past.

However, most would agree that the 2020 coronavirus pandemic is the biggest single blow ever dealt to the industry… with quarantine, a fear of the virus spreading on planes and in airports, and the promise of a second wave this winter already proving the death knell for some smaller operators. 

In the UK, while the summer saw a chance for the staycation market to bounce back from the wiped-out Easter and May holidays, Boris Johnson’s rule of six – and the likelihood of even tougher restrictions coming soon – has ensured that many British hotels and self-catering properties are preparing for huge losses over the winter. 

The travel industry faces its toughest ever winter, with the threat of a second wave likely to further deter people from booking holidays 

For companies who rely on overseas operations, including airlines, the picture looks even bleaker, with countries on the ‘travel corridor’ list changing frequently, meaning there’s little certainty for holidaymakers who might ordinarily break for the sun.  

This week, the general secretary of the TSSA trade union, Manuel Cortes, made an impassioned plea for the Government to do more to save the beleaguered holiday industry, with an upturn in fortunes now looking increasingly unlikely until at least Spring 2021. 

He told this year’s Institute of Travel and Tourism virtual conference: ‘I am saying that no stone should be left unturned to support our industry. At the moment we are seeing nothing really [from government].

‘Whenever this virus is conquered we will all need a well-deserved holiday and sadly if the government doesn’t take measures to preserve our industry we will not have an industry.

‘In the short term, the industry cannot compete. What we need is the government to step in and hold the industry’s hand so we can emerge stronger than before.

‘It has done so in the past for the banking sector, why can’t it do the same for the travel trade?’

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