What are the 24 routes from Heathrow airport with over 1 million passengers annually?

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• David Starkie says:

  15 Jan15 January 09:52

  Would be interesting to see how many carriers there are serving each route. Anyone done the stats?

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:05

    The Heathrow wiki page lists airlines and their destinations …

• phantomchickenz says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:06

  A bit surprising to see Paris there, as Eurostar is generally more convenient, often cheaper, and better for the environment (do people factor that in?). I guess it’s only convenient for London traffic though, not those connecting from the regions.

  Or does it see a lot of through traffic?

  • RussellH says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:28

    It is many, many years since I travelled to Paris by plane.
    Even from the remote NW of England train is easy – it is just a short walk from Euston to St Pancras, whereas getting from Euston to LHR is no fun at all, and takes a lot of time.

    I got surprised just how far one can travel via Paris in a day – I think my record was Frick(CH)-Basel-Strasbourg-Paris-London-Penrith + 45 mins drive home. No rushing around anywhere – just comfortable changes. Takes longer in Paris now, though.

  • Bagoly says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:35

    This is probably driven by passengers flying Paris-LHR-American_City_with_no_direct_service_from_Paris

    • Stu_N says:

      15 Jan15 January 12:31

      …and Heathrow/ Paris then on to destinations in north and west Africa that are poorly served from Heathrow.

      Plus travel from London to the French speaking countries/ territories/ departments scattered around the world.

      Many of the short haul destinations will be driven by connections to an extent.

  • AJA says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:19

    That depends on where in Paris you are heading. I used to commute regularly to a small town south-east of Versailles. I tried the train one time and it was a nightmare trying to get across Paris to the train station that served the local railway station nearest where I needed to be. Forget trying to take a taxi from Gare du Nord as they are not obliged to take you if your destination is beyond the Peripherique.

    And even then, I still required a taxi from the station to the office. At least when I flew LHR-CDG, I could take a taxi from outside the terminal directly to the destination.

    When taking into account the fact that I had to also commute into Waterloo to then cross town to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar itself it was far easier to drive to LHR, leave the car in the business parking and then catch the plane.

  • Can says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:35

    Convenience of Eurostar heavily depends on where you live in London and whether you travel in peak dates. Recently, even if I live in N London, I flew to Paris in Club from LHR as it was cheapish and the lounges were great.
    Premium Eurostar can be as expensive as BA Club, otherwise the long queues for security, crowds etc ruined Eurostar for me in most cases.

  • Lee says:

    15 Jan15 January 17:18

    However, Eurostar has become too service-unfriendly. Overcrowded, dirty trains and lounges with very little food or drinks. Especially the Paris executive lounge’s absence of food is just pathetic. They have just merged with Talys so now they are just milking it. Cheap it is no longer. So beware.

  • HALTraffic says:

    15 Jan15 January 23:40

    30-35 years ago about 6% of Heathrow’s traffic was from/to CDG. If that was kept up it would be over 5m now. Eurostar and LCC have made a big difference since the mid-90s for Paris and Brussels.

• Pb says:

  15 Jan15 January 11:46

  The media keep telling me there is a cost of living crisis and the economy is teetering on the edge .

  • Rich says:

    15 Jan15 January 12:12

    The media love to exaggerate and use words like chaos and crisis don’t they? And the usual suspects (DM, Mirror etc.) are in the market for selling misery, which too many Brits love to buy.

    Some are really struggling and everyone has experienced inflation but there is plenty of cash sloshing around and plenty of people catching up on lost travel time due to covid. The leisure market is booming.

    • Paul says:

      15 Jan15 January 13:22

      Yes there is. Time to tax it and sort out public services.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      15 Jan15 January 13:43

      The gap between the 60-somethings and their indebted 30-something kids gets ever wider and will even more when all those fixed interest mortgages expire…

      Time that National Insurance was extended to cover retirement perhaps (or merged away into Income Tax)? The average pensioner has a higher income than the average working-age person and taxing the poor at a higher rate than the rich (largely to fund the healthcare of the rich) is unjustifiable whatever way you look at it….

      • AJA says:

        15 Jan15 January 14:10

        Out of interest which cohort are you in?

        I assume you include NIC rates in your calculations to arrive at your assertion that the poor are taxed more highly?

        The fact that the average pensioner has a higher income is down to the fact that they’ve had time for their pension wealth to grow. And have earned salary increases in the interim. That’s always been the case.

        Are you suggesting that is wrong?

        If you start contributing to a pension at age 21 you will also have a higher pension than someone who only starts contributing at age 35.

        I think life is a struggle when you first start out. It may be more difficult today with house prices and rents at their highest but that doesn’t mean starting out 35 years ago was that much easier. Anyone else remember mortgage interest rates of 15.25% and the negative equity scandal and people just handing back keys to their homes?

        • Erico1875 says:

          15 Jan15 January 14:36

          Yes had all of those, but it’s still tougher being young now

        • Gordon says:

          15 Jan15 January 18:19

          @AJA- I well remember the 15% interest rates on my first mortgage! I also had an endowment mortgage that did not pay anywhere near the amount projected. Not easy at all!

  • phantomchickenz says:

    15 Jan15 January 13:12

    I expect that those struggling are less likely to be frequent flyers. Unfortunately our society generally means the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer.

    • David says:

      18 Jan18 January 17:24

      Evidence please.

      • Rob says:

        18 Jan18 January 17:38

        https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householdincomeinequalityfinancial/financialyearending2022

  • Mark says:

    15 Jan15 January 14:00

    That’s the media for you. We saw a 5% increase in consumer sales last year

    • Ken says:

      15 Jan15 January 20:22

      Really?

      In volume terms or inflation adjusted ?

      Not great if nominal sales up 5% if inflation is 6%

      Every anecdotal figure I have see heralds a recession incoming.

      Parcel volumes (a good lead indicator) and general haulage (another) is way down in the first 2 weeks of January. More than 1 large container company has said its like 2008.
      Plus we have strikes

      Other ones. Hotel prices in secondary cities are 1/3 down when it’s Liverpool or United playing at home.

      Want to go to lenclume for dinner on a Saturday night ?

      Any time Friday or Saturday at the end of January (full later but this suggests cancellations to me).

      Saturday to Saturday Liverpool / mcr to Geneva for a week skiing (not half term).

      £75 basic return flight add £50 for a cabin bag.
      This would have been £200 plus pre covid (and last year)

  • His Holyness says:

    15 Jan15 January 14:01

    Rationing is back, there’s beef suet pudding on the luxury Concorde menu… #cossielivs

• Paul says:

  15 Jan15 January 13:03

  And despite the record numbers the airport authority’s greed knows no bounds. Parking charges have rise from £6 to £7.50. An astonishing 25% increase.
  Corporate greed on the rampage
  Won’t be long before the drop off charge follows

  • David says:

    15 Jan15 January 15:37

    I park close to airports for free for however long I need. Never had 1 issue if your smart and not park in front of peoples homes. I pay my road tax so I’ve paid my airport parking in advance.

• Richie says:

  15 Jan15 January 13:13

  Is there a list of biggest cargo routes?

  • Rhys says:

    15 Jan15 January 15:04

    I’m sure you can find one somewhere, but we don’t tend to focus on cargo 😉

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      15 Jan15 January 19:53

      We are Self-Loading Freight, surely!

• NorthernLass says:

  15 Jan15 January 13:19

  If NYC is such a lucrative route, would it kill BA to put on 4/5 flights a week from MAN? I know EI goes there but there are never any award seats to be had in J.

  I had a look on flight connections recently and MAN has direct flights to a massive total of 5 (5!) US cities.

  • Richie says:

    15 Jan15 January 14:10

    There no AA and no United flights from MAN which is very surprising.

    • NorthernLass says:

      15 Jan15 January 15:52

      In years gone by there was DL to ATL and JFK, AA to PHL, and United to EWR.

      Now, as you say, no US carriers at all. VS to JFK, ATL, MCO and LAS (seasonal). EI to JFK. I can’t remember what the other one was!

      • Mikeact says:

        15 Jan15 January 21:42

        Really? But ,Manchester Airport (MAN) is the fourth largest airport in United Kingdom. You can fly to 170 destinations with 46 airlines in scheduled passenger traffic. Not bad ,it seems to me, spoilt for choice.

  • Stu_N says:

    15 Jan15 January 14:19

    BA would need to set up some sort of base to operate long haul flights which is expensive and costly and won’t be justified by a few flights a week.

    You’re far more likely to get flights from US carriers between Manchester to USA; they can run them from existing hubs and have the connectivity at the US end that simply doesn’t exist at Manchester. No-one is going to fly JFK-MAN- Europe, but people will fly from a US regional airport to (say) ATL to MAN.

    • Richie says:

      15 Jan15 January 14:32

      BA did operate B767 LHR-JFK-MAN-JFK-LHR, no need for a base.

      • Stu_N says:

        15 Jan15 January 15:13

        Who crews the planes then? “W” routes work on short haul because you can do 4 shortish flights with a single crew. For Transatlantic you’re going to need some sort of crew set-up, fly crews up from London or treat Manchester as a down-route destination.

        • letsfly says:

          15 Jan15 January 15:41

          The crew would stay over in NYC. So do (as an example)
          Day 1
          LHR-JFK

          Day 3
          JFK-MAN
          overnight Manchester

          Day 5
          MAN-JFK

          Day 7
          JFK-LHR

          Or, they could just fly up Shorthaul the night before and stay in Manchester or even the same day and then operate the MAN-JFK flight. It’s all doable – JFK is not a very long longhaul… if they can do 14hrs to HKG they can do 7hrs to JFK plus a few commuting up…surely?

        • Stu_N says:

          15 Jan15 January 16:06

          I’m not saying it’s not doable but it is more costly and more complex than flying out of a home base. For BA to do it, the sums would need to add up and there’d need to be a will to give it a try. Don’t see it happening myself.

      • PhatGit says:

        15 Jan15 January 20:34

        They also used to run around 5 flights a week that were just MAN-JFK. Used it quite a few times 10 or so years ago but had to book it 9+ months in advance as it was popular. Never understood why they stopped it

  • TooPoorToBeHere says:

    15 Jan15 January 18:14

    IAG’s strategy is to serve price sensitive MAN-US traffic with EI, I think.

• Adel says:

  15 Jan15 January 14:53

  Rhys – you assume Amsterdam versus Paris is due to the Eurostar. But you note that Dubai and Doha are not final destinations, and I very much doubt Amsterdam, Paris (AF/KLM hubs),
  Munich or Frankfurt (Lufty hubs) are either, unlike, for example Edinburgh, and to a slightly lesser extent Dublin and Madrid, which whilst being hubs are promoted less from LHR due to BA.

  • Rhys says:

    15 Jan15 January 15:02

    Paris and Amsterdam have got to be some of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe….

    Anyway, my point was that I would expect Paris and Amsterdam to be roughly equal, but they aren’t. And the Eurostar is probably why. (There are, eg. no flights between Paris and London City Airport any more.)

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      15 Jan15 January 20:09

      Eurostar to Amsterdam is 4 hours so longer than a flight.

      Plus from Amex Sur Mer it’s an hour and an half to St Pancras.

      A then there is the extra time needed for check in etc.

      I have done it a couple of times but to be frank it’s a lot more convenient to just fly from Gatwick.

      • Mikeact says:

        15 Jan15 January 21:46

        +1

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      15 Jan15 January 20:13

      Also far fewer Eurostars to AMS – 4 a day IIRC – than there are to Paris.

    • Michael says:

      15 Jan15 January 23:22

      Amsterdam is probably busier as it’s a much better connecting hub than Paris. I believe both Paris and Amsterdam serve more destinations than LHR.

      While I’m not originating in London mostly, I’d rather connect in Amsterdam than any of the alternatives. AMS is a hub of sorts for DL, and usually match or better VS non-stop fares from LHR. The VS / DL booking engines will show the options side by side.

• Nigerian_Prince says:

  15 Jan15 January 21:17

  How can LHR-HKG have 1mil passenger? there are 6 daily direct flights (2 BA 4 Cathay), 1mil / 6 / 365 = 456 passenger per flight?

  • Stu_N says:

    15 Jan15 January 21:30

    It includes inbound and outbound passengers. You have 6 flights each way = 12 flights and approx 3,000 pax a day so 250 per flight and you hit 1m

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