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Heathrow airport on Friday reported a 7.5% decline in the number of passengers passing through its four terminals in March, after a power outage closed the entire airport for a day and the key Easter travel period fell outside the month this year. The west London airport said it handled 6.2 million travellers last month, down from 6.7 million in March 2024. Heathrow attributed the decline to the timing of Ramadan and Easter this year and to a 10-hour closure caused by a power supply failure. The airport was closed to all flights until about 6 pm on Friday, March 21, after a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation which started late the previous night. This disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys. Additionally, Ramadan covered the entire month of March this year, pushing travel to the beginning and end of the holiday period. Meanwhile, Easter falls on April 20 this year versus March 31 last year, meaning travel for school holidays is taking place in April instead of March. The EU remained by far the most popular destination for passengers travelling through Heathrow, at 2.0 million, while North America was the second most popular at 1.5 million. More positively, the weight of cargo handled by Heathrow last month was up 0.3% from a year before, including a 4% increase in goods transported in the holds of passenger planes. Heathrow Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye said: ‘It’s great to see strong demand to travel through Heathrow...We are still on track to see another record year in 2025.’ Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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