More than five million passengers travelled through the London airport in May (79% of 2019 levels), making it the airport’s busiest month since March 2020.

A spokesperson said 90% of passengers were through security in less than 10 minutes and no more flights were cancelled at short notice than on any normal day and Border Force "performed well".

The airport’s Terminal 4 will reopen on 14 June and 30 airlines will move in ahead of the summer peak. "We are increasing our own security, engineering and services teams, and supporting other employers across the airport with their recruitment," the spokesperson added.

Heathrow urged the CAA to protect service and resilience levels, incentivise investment and maintain affordable private financing, all of which, they claimed, can be achieved for less than the equivalent of a 2% increase in ticket prices.
 

Heathrow chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said: "I’m immensely proud of the way my team has worked with airlines and other partners to ensure passengers got away during the Jubilee half term.

"We continue to make good progress with our plans to ramp up capacity and are working closely with airlines and government to keep supply and demand in balance as we grow, so that passengers can travel through Heathrow this summer with confidence."