Heathrow back in black as fees for airlines rise
HEATHROW swung to a profit of £426m last year, helped by the sale of Stansted and rising charges.
Europe’s busiest airport by passenger traffic posted an 11.3 per cent rise in revenues to almost £2.5bn, and reversing last year’s pre-tax loss of £33m.
Aeronautical income, generated by charging airlines to use the airport, rose 19 per cent to £1.5bn. Heathrow said some of this was a correction for lower-than-expected rises in previous years.
“We have never reached the rate of return that the regulator said we would,” chief executive Colin Matthews said.
Heathrow has until the end of March to decide whether to appeal the Civil Aviation Authority’s ruling on fees for the next five years, which will cap yield growth at 1.5 per cent below inflation. The airport is cutting jobs and freezing pay to try and fall into line with the ruling.
Heathrow’s shareholders – who include Ferrovial, the Universities Superannuation Scheme and the Qatari sovereign wealth fund – were paid £255m in dividends, down from £240m last year.
They were also given £300m from the £1.5bn sale of Stansted to Manchester Airports Group.
Passenger numbers at the airport, whose runways are all but full, rose 3.4 per cent in the year to a record 72.3m, helped by airlines switching to larger planes.
The CAA had forecast traffic at Heathrow above 77.2m when it set its last fees cap in 2008, but the recession kept a lid on demand for air travel.