Three of the biggest names in air travel last week posted substantial losses.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye summed up the situation.  "The UK is emerging from the worst effects of the health pandemic, but is falling behind its EU rivals in international trade by being slow to remove restrictions. Replacing PCR tests with lateral flow tests and opening up to EU and US vaccinated travellers at the end of July will start to get Britain’s economic recovery off the ground." 

Heathrow reported a headline loss of £787m for the six months to the end of June. In the same period last year the airport lost £471m. Revenue fell 51% to £348m over the period, down from £712m.

The airport warned that it could see fewer passengers in 2021 than in 2020, as it posts interim results. Just four million people travelled through Heathrow in the first six months of 2021, a level that would have taken just 18 days to reach in 2019.

Ryanair struck a more optimistic note reporting a loss of €273m for the three months to the end of June, slightly better than the €283m loss forecast by analysts.

Europe's largest low-cost carrier said it expected to fly between 90m and 100m passengers in the year to the end of March 2022, up from an earlier forecast of 80m to 100m. Ryanair flew 27.5m passengers in the year to March 2021, down from a pre-Covid peak of 149m the previous year.

IAG plunged to a £1.7bn half year loss as continued travel restrictions continue to batter the airlines' group.  Although eye-watering, the losses are roughly half those that IAG made in the same period in 2020, when the pandemic first grounded flights around the world.  

Also see in this week’s BTN ON THE SOAPBOX: John Holland-Kaye, CEO, Heathrow Airport

www.heathrow.com

www.ryanair.com

www.iairgroup.com