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Heathrow handles 262,000 passengers on its busiest ever day

Heathrow had its busiest day in its history on July 29 as the airport handled almost 262,000 passengers in 24 hours.

A record July saw more than 250,000 passengers travelling through the airport on 19 different days in the month.

More than 7.8 million passengers used the London hub in its 21st consecutive record month, with figures up by 3.7%.

But the airport said: “Figures reiterate the need to extend the use of self-service e-gates to nations such as the United States and Canada.”

Key transatlantic routes saw “significant growth” of 8.1%, a total of 1.8 million passengers driven by larger, fuller aircraft.

Passengers on Asia-Pacific routes climbed by 4.2% following new services from Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines serving Changsha and Xi’an and Qingdao.

Heathrow has added nine new routes to Chinese destinations in the past two years.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “It’s brilliant to see even more international visitors coming to the UK and supercharging the country’s economy this summer.

“However, too often their first impression of the UK is a long queue for immigration.

“The Home Office should let visitors from low risk countries, such as the US, use the same e-gates as EU visitors to give them a warm welcome to Britain.”

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