The airport, Europe’s biggest hub before the Covid-19 pandemic decimated travel, raised its annual passenger forecast by 16%. Even so, it will remain unprofitable this year after total losses from coronavirus disruption reached 4 billion pounds .
“There’s a huge amount of uncertainty,” Chief Executive Officer John Holland-Kaye said in an interview. “A lot of the demand that we’ve seen coming through involves people cashing in vouchers or taking postponed journeys. In a worst case scenario this wouldn’t continue, and we’d see a new wave of coronavirus in the autumn.
The CAA has set an interim price cap of 30.19 pounds per passenger. The airport says it expects a decision by July, though that will be subject to further consultation. Virgin expects to reach 100% of its 2019 passenger levels during the summer peak and said Heathrow is likely to regain its status as Europe’s busiest hub for the full year.Heathrow is continuing to scale up operations while seeking to address a staffing squeeze, Holland-Kaye said. The CEO said operations will remain stretched during the summer peak but that over Easter the airport successfully dealt with 80% of the 2019 customer load with only 55% of the staff.