What Heathrow Airport Numbers Signifies to the Travel Industry
The current flow of business activities at Heathrow Airport is indicative of the status and condition of the travel industry in the United Kingdom. The figures released just recently by BAA, the owner of the airport, clearly shows declining trend of passenger numbers in the largest airport in Britain. The steady decrease in figures is strongly felt at domestic flights. Flybe, which is the main domestic carrier in Britain, has earlier forecasted that during the winter season, a worse scenario is to be expected. This is validated by the report from Heathrow indicating an abrupt 17% decline of the number of domestic passengers during the month of October. This figure accounts to only a little over 6 million passengers which ends a nine-month growth streak. As compared to the data report during the same period in the previous year, it showed a 1.3% drop. The decline in the number of internal routes is attributed to the weakening of the economic situation globally. A good number of airlines shifted to long-haul destinations which are more lucrative and more viable so as to compensate for the lost profits in weakening domestic flights.
Even international and long distance routes are also going through a weak production. US bound flights from UK showed a 13% growth in May last year but this year only 0.35% growth during the same month is achieved. A 2% decrease in other international destinations aside from the US was also reported.
Another factor why Heathrow is experiencing business drawback is the fact its customers are enticed to the services of its rivals particularly Amsterdam’s Schipnol which offers connecting flights to key destinations like Hangzhou China. Heathrow also needs a third runway so it can start launching new services for its clients. Another advantage of Schipnol is it does not charge flight tax in their connecting flight services originating from Amsterdam; this is the reason why British passengers bound for farther destinations are now shifting to Schipnol from Heathrow. There are issues now regarding the surcharges in UK travel industry that need to be looked into.
This ominous business atmosphere at Heathrow airport greatly affects other trades. Hotel businesses are one of the most affected if travel industry in the UK is not in good shape. If the number of travelers keeps going on a downward trend, it surely does not sound good to them. The travel industry slowdown has a domino effect and the consequences are felt in every related business.
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