Reporters at The Times have uncovered shocking statistics that show that over a quarter of passengers at Heathrow Airport, which is the most congested airport in Britain, are international travellers who are merely stopping to change planes there.
The amount of international passengers arriving at Heathrow Airport to change planes has trebled to 18 million since 1993. This amount is expected to double in size by 2030, which will cost the treasury millions in lost tax revenue. This is because passengers using the airport to merely make a transfer are not entitled to pay air passenger duty.
Foreign transfer travellers are profitable for airlines, particularly British Airways, which operates 40 per cent of Heathrow flights, because they fill up otherwise empty seats. However, each one of these seats that is taken by a foreign transfer passenger costs the treasury up to £80 in lost tax revenue. Indeed, statistics show that if those beginning their journeys at Heathrow Airport or even transferring from a domestic flight took these seats, the treasury would gain a massive £500 million worth of tax per year.
The large amount of international transfer passengers is particularly controversial when considered alongside Heathrow Airport’s plans for a new runway. After all, many critics rightly argue that a reduction in the amount of foreign transfer passengers would remove the need for this extra runway, which has also raised environmental and financial concerns. The capacity of the new runway, which " if it goes ahead - is expected to open in 2020, would be around the same as the number of foreign transfer passengers that are expected to be using the airport by 2030. As Liberal Democrat spoke person Norman Baker explains, "These are devastating figures which show that the third runway, for all its massive cost and environmental damage, is being built to help international transfer passengers who never leave the airport. If the number were reduced, we wouldn’t need a new runway and we would have more space at Heathrow for people from this country."
A number of supporters, including British Airways, defend the need to cater for foreign transfer passengers at Heathrow, claiming that international transfer travellers allow airlines to fly to a wider variety of locations. A British Airways spokesperson said: "Without seat purchases from overseas transfer passengers, many long-haul routes from Heathrow would be unviable. That would mean that passengers in London and the South East would lose direct flights to a swath of destinations, putting businesses here at a serious disadvantage."
Despite this defence, statistics indicate that the growth in the number of these passengers actually coincides with a decline in the number of destinations served, which has fallen from 227 to 180 since 1990. Indeed, Mr Baker argued that these statistics showed that "we don’t need" foreign transfer passengers to ensure Heathrow’s success. He said: "With ever-increasing demand from British passengers to use Heathrow, we don’t need foreign transfer passengers to make routes viable. They are there simply to satisfy the greed of BA and BAA (who operate Heathrow)."
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