British trade soars with Heathrow’s best cargo month in over 5 years

London Heathrow Airport has posted a March cargo volume increase of nearly 13%, to 148,000 metric tons, its largest monthly growth in over five years.

Long-haul emerging markets remain a driver of cargo performance, with significant markets in March including Mexico, with a 28% hike, Brazil, which was up 13%, and India, with a rise of 9%.

The key market, however, was the impressive growth from Indonesia that was up over 9,000% thanks to Garuda Indonesia moving to Heathrow from Gatwick last year.

The coming year looks to remain positive for cargo figures, with China Southern confirming it will double cargo capacity on Britain’s strategic trading routes when it launches an additional service to Guangzhou in June, further boosting export opportunities for British business.

Heathrow remains an important enabler of British trade, handling over 30% of non-EU exports and more cargo by value than all other UK airports combined.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow CEO, commented, “Surging trade, more domestic connections and more long-haul growth are the bedrock of the UK’s economy. Today’s figures put Britain in a strong position as the government begins Brexit negotiations and underline the unique role Heathrow plays as the nation’s global gateway.

“Our expansion plans will give Britain the tools to do even better. We’ll double our domestic connections and add up to 40 new long-haul trading links, making the UK the best connected country on earth. It’s a huge prize that only Heathrow delivers and we’re getting on with securing it for Britain.”

Heathrow has seen 399,481 metric tons of cargo from January to March of this year, signifying a 7.3% rise on the same period in 2016. From April 2016 to March 2017, 1,568,384 metric tons of cargo passed through Heathrow, up 4.7% on the previous year.