At least 600,000 passengers cancelled travel plans from Heathrow in December due to Omicron and the uncertainty caused by swiftly imposed government travel restrictions

The drop in expected numbers in the last month of the year saw Heathrow welcoming only 19.4m passengers in 2021 – less than one quarter of 2019 and below even 2020 levels.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “There are currently travel restrictions, such as testing, on all Heathrow routes – the aviation industry will only fully recover when these are all lifted and there is no risk that they will be reimposed at short notice, a situation which is likely to be years away.”