London Heathrow reports record-breaking freight numbers for January

London Heathrow Airport (LHR) got off to an optimistic start in 2018, reporting today that it tallied a new record in cargo volume for January, with a year-over-year increase of a 6.9 percent in metric tonnes of cargo moved for the month. These positive figures suggest that forecasts of continued growth in early 2018 for the industry may be coming to fruition, at least for the United Kingdom.

A record breaking 133,030 tonnes of freight passed through the hub in January, Heathrow said. The top destinations for LHR’s cargo last month were the United States, Spain and China, weighing in at 1,214, 1,070 and 966 tonnes, respectively; export volumes grew by 10.6% overall. In comparison, the United States and the Middle East were the two regional destinations that saw negative export volumes, y-o-y, for January.

In keeping with this increase in capacity demand, the airport said it is in the initial stages of planning to expand and is hosting a ten-week public consultation to collect public feedback before moving forward.

According to Bloomberg, in January of this year, Prime Minister Theresa May led a trade meeting attended by world leaders in finance, healthcare and industry in China, an overarching question being the effect of the U.K.’s impending departure of the European Union’s effect on trade. We’ll have to wait to see if Heathrow’s moment in the sun will hold as these changes in policy come into effect in the future.