Latest news with #Heathrow
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Heathrow warns of slowdown in travel from America
Heathrow has warned that economic uncertainty unleashed by Donald Trump's trade war has sparked a slowdown in travel from the United States. In an update to investors, Europe's busiest airport said it is beginning to see indications of a drop in bookings on transatlantic routes most favoured by business travellers. Heathrow said that while demand among Britons for leisure flights to the US remains strong, it has 'observed some early signs of softness on business-heavy routes'. It added: 'The impact of the economic uncertainty across North America has made this market more challenging so we are maintaining a close watching brief on traffic trends.' Heathrow's comments suggest that demand in the world's biggest corporate and premium travel market is beginning to be undermined by Mr Trump's trade war and its impact on business confidence. They said that while transatlantic routes continue to represent a core strength of the network it serves, there is an 'overhanging uncertainty' about how well they will hold up going into the summer peak. Slight recovery However, US passenger volumes still increased from January through May compared with a year earlier, it said, while cargo volumes jumped amid increased trade activity ahead of the president's liberation day tariffs announcement in April. British Airways (BA) has previously reported softer ticket sales for its economy class cabins on flights from the US, though Luis Gallego, chief executive of parent company International Airlines Group, said this month that demand was recovering. Virgin Atlantic also said in March that it was seeing a lower level of bookings made in the US, with a few weeks where it had turned negative. Heathrow predicted that passenger numbers will increase 0.5pc this year to 84.2m, while warning of a 3pc drop in operating profits as it absorbs the impact of the Government's National Insurance tax raid. Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow's chief executive, said punctuality at the airport has improved to the best level among European hubs, while almost 97pc of passengers were now clearing security in less than five minutes. Mr Woldbye had faced criticism over service standards from Heathrow Reimagined, a lobby group that includes BA and Virgin and is demanding a reset of the charging mechanism for flying from the airport ahead of the construction of a third runway. It is seeking the establishment of a new body that will give airlines more say over infrastructure spending, and a move to competition between Heathrow's terminals. The Civil Aviation Authority will set out the scope of a review of the charging system as early as next week.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Heathrow eyes £2bn profit despite National Insurance hit
Heathrow has lifted profit forecasts after a stronger than expected bounce in travel demand and despite higher costs arising from the recent National Insurance hike. The British Airways hub, which is Europe's busiest airport, said it now expects to post adjusted earnings before nasties of £1.98billion for this year, up from £1.95billion in December. However, the airport's latest profit outlook would mark a 3 per cent decline year-on-year, owing to higher operating costs. It said it faced ongoing cost pressures from security requirements, 'additional service mitigations', and rising contractual costs from National Insurance. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last autumn that employers' National Insurance contributions would go up in early April from 13.8 per cent on annual wages above £9,100 to 15 per cent on salaries exceeding £5,000. Many prominent businesses have complained that the tax increase, together with the higher minimum wage and less generous business rates relief, will lead to job cuts and lower profits. The airport also continues to expect total passenger numbers of 84.2 million this year, compared to 83.9 million in 2024, due to elevated leisure demand and greater long-haul flying than initially predicted. A total of 32.6 million people travelled through Heathrow in the first five months of 2025, supported by growth from Latin America, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific markets. Heathrow's cargo tonnage also rose by 16 per cent, as increased volumes from North America ahead of the introduction of recent tariffs offset declines in Europe. The airport claimed to be the most punctual hub airport in Europe during the period, with 98.4 per cent of regulated queue times in Central Search Areas coming in under five minutes. Thomas Woldbye, chief executive of Heathrow, said: 'As the UK's hub, delivering for our customers and the country is what matters. 'We are on track for another strong year with the best punctuality amongst the major hubs in Europe, over £1billion of investment to improve the airport and growing passenger numbers despite macroeconomic uncertainty. 'We are doing it all with an airport charge that, on a like-for-like basis, is aligned with our European competitors.' Heathrow briefly closed on 21 March after suffering a power outage when a nearby electrical substation caught fire. Around 270,000 journeys were affected by the shutdown. A review of the incident by former Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said the airport 'made the right decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances.' Heathrow has agreed to implement all 28 recommendations made by Kelly's report.
Reuters
16 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
UK's Heathrow projects upbeat annual revenue for 2025
June 27 (Reuters) - Britain's Heathrow Airport on Friday said it expects annual revenue to improve to 3.61 billion pounds ($4.96 billion) in 2025, driven by better-than-expected long-haul flights amid rebounding leisure demand. ($1 = 0.7280 pounds)
Times
a day ago
- Business
- Times
Keir Starmer tells business leaders: ‘We've asked a lot of you'
Stepping on stage at the QEII Centre in Westminster on Thursday, the prime minister was full of thanks and acknowledgement of the effect the government's cost increases have had on businesses. Addressing the annual British Chambers of Commerce conference after an earlier breakfast meeting with bosses of more than a dozen companies, including Heathrow, Spire Healthcare and NatWest, Sir Keir Starmer signalled an attempt to rebuild strained relations. 'I want to begin by thanking you all because look, I fully acknowledge here that this year, as we've had to fix the foundations of our country, deal with the unprecedented mess that we inherited, we've asked a lot of you. I understand that,' he said. • 'Freeze taxes' says business lobby after national insurance hit After being wooed in the run-up to July's election victory, businesses have since hit out at the 'size and scale' of Labour's rise in employers' national insurance contributions, announced in October's budget and introduced in April. A new survey by the BCC, one of Britain's big five business lobby groups, released before its conference of mostly small and medium-sized businesses, found that a third said they have either made staff redundant or are planning to as a 'direct result' of the increase. Shevaun Haviland, the BCC's director general, in her conference speech, pressed the government to commit itself to freezing business taxes. In Starmer's charm offensive to the hundreds of delegates sitting before him in the vast conference room he gave no such commitment. But having unveiled the spending review for the parliament this month, as well as the industrial, infrastructure and, on Thursday, trade strategies, the prime minister said the government had shown a 'clear shift' to the 'next phase' of 'investing in the future of our country'. He added: 'And that means that we have to back you to the hilt. Because your members are the engines of growth in every community across the United Kingdom.' Monday's industrial strategy is underpinned by slashing the internationally uncompetitive costs of the economy's most intensive energy users and finally tackling the country's chronic skills shortage. The trade strategy includes a focus on pursuing smaller, faster trade deals with the likes of Brazil, Thailand and Kenya, rather than bigger free-trade agreements; closer ties with 'like-minded' nations such as Japan and Singapore; a £20 billion increase in the capacity of UK Export Finance, the government's credit agency for exporters, to £80 billion; and a consultation on anti-dumping measures for steel. One senior business leader, speaking privately on the sidelines of the conference after Starmer's speech, said the prime minister 'really is listening. So I think that is all positive.' But they added, talking of the broader government: 'They don't quite recognise the impact of the taxes and national insurance impact. It is significant. I mean you can't just absorb those. You have to do something about it. It is impacting jobs.' They said: 'Everybody in the room I talk to is making redundancies … so they're [ministers] going to have to do quite a lot of work on the productivity side of the balance sheet to offset what they did.' On stage, in a conversation with Haviland, Thomas Woldbye, the chief executive of Heathrow, welcomed the chancellor's green light this year for a third runway at the airport, a big infrastructure project that could boost Britain's productivity. Woldbye said Heathrow was 'central' in 'facilitating and delivering' the government's trade, industrial and infrastructure strategies. Heathrow is submitting its formal proposal to the government this summer and ministers are targeting planning permission this parliament. Woldbye said the chancellor's deadline was 'very, very ambitious' and required work on planning, as well as modernising the UK's airspace. Another significant concern of business is the government's contentious Employment Rights Bill. Starmer told the conference: 'I get the concerns,' but declined to signal further concessions as officials work with business on the reforms. The workers' rights changes will introduce day-one rights, better access to flexible working, and hand greater powers to trade unions. The prime minister said: 'Many people have recognised that a secure, protected workforce is good for business; drives up productivity.' Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, who also attended the conference and the earlier breakfast with bosses, told reporters on the sidelines that he was 'absolutely certain' the government could address the 'two principal concerns' of business — probation periods and access to zero-hour contracts — 'not through any change of policy, but through our existing approach'. • Workers' rights bill will stymie growth, not encourage it The senior business leader, who was speaking privately, said to capitalise on the productivity benefits of artificial intelligence, businesses needed to restructure the workforce and operations, yet the employment rights reforms 'as far as I can see, freezes everything … you're going to get into a very complex process'. Closing the conference, Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition and former Conservative business secretary, reiterated that the Tories had lost the trust of business before last July's general election, but citing inflation, growth and unemployment, said Labour had since delivered 'change for the worse and it didn't have to happen'. Taking aim at the employment rights reforms — a 'huge problem' — and business taxes, Badenoch said: 'The rise in national insurance is killing jobs. It is making it impossible for businesses to grow.' Seeking to 'win back trust', she told delegates: 'We have to unleash the animal spirits of business.'
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's space military tech ‘threat', trade deal progress clues: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing China is moving 'breathtakingly fast' in space military technologies and posing strategic threats to the United States, America's top space force official said on Tuesday. The United States and China could reach a trade agreement as early as next week, according to a Harvard scholar, who has offered clues on the state of negotiations weeks after the two rival economies agreed to a trade truce. Passengers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London in January 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE The number of wealthy mainland Chinese choosing to emigrate is projected to drop to a 10-year low this year thanks to the country's improved business environment and its growing appeal to tech entrepreneurs, according to a report by a London-based advisory firm.
