Heathrow Airport has seen its nine month profit increase to £419 million ($642 million) from £52 million in 2014.
The airport says revenue increased by 4.1 per cent to £2 billion with aeronautical revenue rising by three per cent to £1.3 billion.
Heathrow chief executive officer, John Holland-Kaye says the results show that the airport needs a third runway. He says: “Expansion at Heathrow fills the gaps in the UK’s long-term economic plan, by connecting all of the Britain to global growth … we’re well placed to make the private investment to fund expansion. Let’s make it happen.”
Heathrow says if it has a third runway, as recommended by the UK government’s Airports Commission, it could serve up to 40 new long-haul connections. The airport says a third runway could offer economic benefits of up to £211 billion, while creating 180,000 jobs nationally.
Heathrow Airport saw cargo volumes increase slightly by 0.2 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes despite September seeing a fall of 4.4 per cent to 119,091 tonnes. It says growth in North American cargo was offset by declines in the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
The airport says throughout the year it improved taxiways to cope with increased usage of Airbus A380s, which will continue until the end of 2015. It says the upgrades will improve taxiway times, reducing congestion and emissions.
In 2015, Avianca started flights to Columbia while in March Vietnam Airlines moved operations to Heathrow from Gatwick Airport.
