Heathrow hiring as traffic hits highest since start of Covid

[LONDON] London's Heathrow airport will ramp up hiring "as fast as possible" after passenger numbers surged last month to the highest since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The 4.2 million travellers passing through the facility in March represents a more than 7-fold jump from a year earlier, said a statement Monday.

The hub, once Europe's busiest, is racing to hire 12,000 new workers to meet demand after the UK lifted curbs on travel. It said it expects a summer travel season that could approach 2019 levels at its peak.

The rapid upswing in travel volumes has put pressure on Heathrow and other airports to rapidly gear up operations after two years of stop-and-start business. Britain's airports and airlines have struggled to handle increased volumes in the run-up to the Easter holidays after cutting back on staff during the pandemic.

Fuel shortages and a controversial mass firing at P&O Ferries Ltd have added to the congestion. The company's vessels running between Dover and Calais, France, remain idled after almost a month. The capacity shortage led to truck backups over the past weekend, while drivers in south-east England have been hit by fuel shortages at the pumps.

Some 34 per cent of EasyJet flights were delayed on Sunday, said tracking site FlightAware, and officials have warned of more queues at airports later this week. The low-cost carrier has had to cancel flights due to a wave of staff Covid-19 infections, while British Airways also pre-emptively pared back its schedule due to technology glitches, hiring and resource issues at Heathrow. Still, FlightAware showed 31 per cent of its flights delayed on Sunday.

Demand during March was driven by UK holiday-makers going overseas, Heathrow said. Leisure and business travel into the country remains weak due to high Covid levels in the country and the requirement for overseas visitors to test before returning home.

The airport also warned that it was still unclear whether the surge in demand was sustainable, with the war in Ukraine, high fuel prices and the potential for new Covid variants clouding the medium-term outlook. The airport said it was reviewing its forecasts and provide an update later this month.

"It is fantastic to see the airport coming back to life after two years," chief executive officer John Holland-Kaye said in the statement.

BLOOMBERG