London-Heathrow ends busiest-ever year in 2024 with record-breaking December

London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) has ended a record-breaking 2024 with passenger figures soaring past the airport’s previous highest figure set in 2019. Additionally, the airport’s terminals saw their highest-ever month in December 2024, with over seven million travelers using the airport throughout the holiday month.

With numbers of passengers boosted by Christmas and New Year travel, 7,075,000 travelers used the airport in December 2024, a figure which represents an increase of 5.6% over the same month in 2023. The strong end to 2024 brought the year’s total passenger figure to 83,860,000 for the full year – up 5.9 percentage points over the figure for 2023. Both results are new records for the West London airport, with the annual figure exceeding the previous record of 80 million set in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interestingly, even Christmas Day itself (December 25, 2024) was impressively busy at the airport, with a record 160,000 passengers passing through the airport that day alone, an increase of 13% increase on the previous record from 2023 for what has traditionally been a quieter day for travel over the holiday period. New York, Los Angeles, Dublin, and Madrid were among the top destinations in 2024 for Heathrow passengers.

Ceri Breeze / ShutterstockIn terms of cargo, Heathrow handled almost 138,000 tonnes of cargo passed through the airport, culminating in a total of over 1.5 million tonnes of air freight at the airport in 2024. This figure represents 10.4% growth over the previous year.

Air transport movements at Heathrow also set new records in 2024. The airport saw 473,965 landings and take-offs during the year, with 38,854 in December 2024 alone. These numbers were up 4.4% and 2.8% over the same periods the previous year, respectively.

According to an airport statement, “In line with record-breaking traffic growth in 2024, Heathrow has continued to provide strong service, with 92% of passengers through security in less than five minutes. It has also continued to deliver significant operational benefits, investing millions to upgrade security lanes and resurface the southern runway, with no impact on operations despite it being the busiest ever summer.”

BasPhoto / Shutterstock“2024 was an exciting and record-breaking year at Heathrow,” said Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye. “I’m proud of all my colleagues and our partners who worked so hard to deliver great experiences for more passengers than ever before. In 2025, our journey towards better value for our customers will continue by investing in the kind of facilities our passengers and airlines are looking for. We aim to become more innovative to ensure that our airport delivers for the whole of the UK.”

The airport added that 2025 is off to a strong start, with Heathrow forecasting to handle 84.2 million passengers over the full year of 2025, up again over the 2024 figure. As part of an ongoing investment program, and “to continue to deliver for passengers who depend on the world-class hub and create business opportunities up and down the country,” the airport will be investing over £1 billion ($1.3 billion) throughout 2025 to keep the airport competitive against its larger European rivals such as Paris-Charles De Gaulle (CDG), Frankfurt (FRA), and Amsterdam-Schiphol (AMS).

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