Heathrow ‘deeply scarred’ by Covid but expects rebound to continue

theguardian.com:

Heathrow airport says is still recovering after being “deeply scarred” by the pandemic, but expects a further rebound in travel this year after annual losses narrowed in 2022.

While Britain’s busiest airport continued to make losses throughout 2022, it said a near-trebling of passenger numbers helped halve adjusted losses to £684m from £1.3bn a year earlier.

About 62 million passengers passed through its gates last year, following the reopening of borders after two years of disruption during the Covid outbreak. Heathrow expects that figure to rise to 67.2m for 2023, thanks to stronger demand for travel and despite the cost of living pressures facing households. It has already reported the busiest start to the year since before the pandemic, with more than 5.4 million passengers using the airport in January.

But forecasts for 2023 mean it would only be hitting 83% of 2019 passenger levels, a further sign it may be some time before travel fully recovers from the effects of national lockdowns.

Heathrow said border closures and loss of skilled workers during the pandemic had “deeply scarred” the aviation sector, which experienced widespread travel chaos last year, resulting in part from staff shortages. Those shortages forced Heathrow to temporarily impose capacity limits on airlines.

Although more than 25,000 people have started working at Heathrow in the last 18 months, and resourcing was now close to pre-pandemic levels, the company warned it would “take some time to recover”.

“The focus is now on improving skills, experience and building resilience”, the company said.

Investors will also have to remain patient for any payouts, with the operator stating it would pay no dividends in 2022, and none planned for the current