OAG welcomes plans for expansion of Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow has been facing capacity constraints for years

Aviation industry tracker and analysis firm OAG has welcomed the support by British government for expansion of Heathrow Airport, saying that capacity constraints at the airport were limiting the country’s economic growth.

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For several years, there has been a contentious debate over whether capacity at London Heathrow Airport needs to be expanded and whether the airport, which is the busiest in Europe, and the biggest gateway into the United Kingdom needs a third runway.

Aviation data tracking and industry analysis firm OAG says that Heathrow is bursting at the seams and in this context has welcomed the recent statement by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves expressing her support for expanding Heathrow Airport and building a third runway.

OAG says that capacity expansion at London Heathrow (LHR) is not only necessary, but will also lead to a boost in the economic growth of the United Kingdom.

Using inbound and outbound flight data, OAG says it has compiled the situation on LHR’s busiest day in 2024, which was September 4. It says on that day the airport recorded as many as 1,398 flights, with 299,706 seats available on them.

This translated into an average of 74 flights per hour, based on operational hours of the airport that extend from 04:00 to 23:00. It says that on that day the busiest hour for arrivals was 09:00 with 45 scheduled, and departures was 19:00 with 48 departures.

In the full year, 2024, the busiest route from the airport was between LHR and JFK in New York, with over 4 million seats. Heathrow was also the second busiest international airport in the world with 48.36 million seats on the international sector only. Heathrow was second only to Dubai, which was the busiest international airport once again.

OAG says that LHR was also the busiest airport in Europe with 51.55 million seats in one way domestic and international capacity.

It adds that considering operational restrictions during early and late hours, it is evident that most of the day, the airport already operates at full capacity, leaving no room for additional movements.

This lack of available capacity is a significant barrier to growth at Heathrow, the additional runway will enable the airport to expand its traffic further in the coming years, it adds.