At Heathrow, the daily number of flights has continued to increase. During May 2022, London Heathrow Airport welcomed 5.3m passengers, 79 per cent of 2019 levels. This included the Platinum Jubilee half-term travel boom. Through summer 2022, the daily number of flights remained capped, but growth in activity continued. It is once again the busiest airport in Europe. The airport hosted 5.8 million passengers between July and September, more than rivals in cities such as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. A year ago, it was Europe’s tenth busiest airport, something it blamed on Covid pandemic travel rules. The airport expects its busiest Christmas for three years, but does not think it will need to cap flights.
At a public forum of the new Council for the Independent Scrutiny of Heathrow Airport (CISHA) on 20 October 2022, John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow Airport Ltd, reaffirmed the operator’s commitment to a third runway, when questioned by the CISHA chair, Baroness Liz Sugg, a former aviation minister.