Heathrow Airport has announced pre-pandemic beating passenger stats of over seven million people for September.
Around 7.08 million people travelled through the airport in last month, Heathrow said on Wednesday - the first time 2019 figures have been exceeded since February 2020.
At the same time, Heathrow announced the departure of longstanding chief executive officer John Holland-Kaye, who will hand over the reins to Thomas Woldbye on 18 October.
“It has been a privilege to lead the very talented team which in less than a decade transformed Heathrow into a hub airport that the whole nation can be proud of,” Holland-Kaye commented.
He had taken charge in 2014, the same year a £1 billion refurbishment of Heathrow’s second terminal was completed.
“When the COVID-19 crisis shut down global aviation, John protected frontline jobs at Heathrow, kept Britain’s biggest port open for vital supplies and coordinated industry efforts to safely reopen borders,” the airport added in a statement.
Passenger numbers for September marked a 22.4% increase on the same month last year, with almost 59.37 million people having passed through Heathrow so far this year.