London Heathrow passenger traffic hit again in October by MidEast fall
(Alliance News) - Heathrow airport on Wednesday said passenger traffic declined again in October, hurt by another big fall in travel to and from the Middle East.
The west London airport reported 7.3 million terminal passengers in October, down 1.0% from a year before. Traffic had fallen by 2.3% in September and by 2.1% in August. In total, it is down 0.6% to 70.2 million passengers in the first 10-months of 2026.
The US-Iran war and the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen again restricted travel between London and the Middle East, with traffic down 21% at Heathrow in October. Travel to and from the EU was down 0.3%, while travel within the UK was down 6.0%.
More positively, Heathrow said passengers for Asia-Pacific were up 7.5% last month and for North America up 1.1%.
The airport also highlighted a 5.8% annual rise in cargo traffic to 145,137 metric tonnes in October.
Heathrow used the traffic figures to once again make its case for approval of its proposal to build a third runway. In particular on Wednesday, the airport asserted that 60% of the UK economic growth generated by its expansion would occur outside of London and the south east of England.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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