London Heathrow Airport (LHR) has announced a record-breaking 2025 as passenger numbers surpassed 84 million for the very-first time.
Last month also marked the busiest December on record, with nearly 7.2 million passengers travelling through the airport.
Additional highlights for the year include LHR’s busiest day on record on 01 August, which saw passenger numbers surpass 270,000, and the outperformance of 2024 across nine out of twelve months.
Over 97% of passengers waited less than five minutes for security during December, with baggage performance improving to a load rate of over 98% – an increase of more than a quarter of a million bags reaching their intended flights compared to 2024.
The month also saw the transportation of 138k tonnes of cargo, with a year-on-year weight increasing by 12,600 tonnes over 2024. Finally, passengers bought an item from World Duty Free every 5.5 seconds – another new record.
With intentions to carry performance forward; LHR has pledged to invest more than 1.3 billion GBP into the airport during 2026 in an effort to boost both customers and service.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said:December’s record-breaking performance shows the strength of demand for Heathrow and the benefit to passengers of the great service our colleagues are providing. Last year, there was no hub airport in Europe that was more punctual than Heathrow and we look forward to building on that success in 2026.
With the Government’s support for our expansion plans, and the right regulatory framework from the CAA to secure private investment, we can unlock even more of that connectivity, trade and economic growth for the UK.
