Some 19.4 million passengers passed through the UK’s busiest airport last year, less than a quarter compared with pre-pandemic levels and down from 22.1 million in 2020.
It estimates in excess of 600,000 passengers cancelled travel plans involving Heathrow in December alone owing to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and "the uncertainty caused by swiftly imposed government travel restrictions".
Following the emergence of Omicron, the UK government reintroduced Day 2 PCR testing and pre-departure testing; both measures were rolled back late last week and over the weekend.
