Volume at LHR decreases 8 percent in December, y-o-y

London Heathrow Airport (LHR) released its end-of-the-year results, kicking off a highly anticipated 2019 (read: the year the Brexit ax drops) with some similarly anxiety-inducing cargo traffic figures.

Volume at LHR during December decreased 3.6 percent to 132,005 tonnes, year-over-year, and was essentially flat, growing just 0.1 percent for the whole year, to 1.66 million tonnes, compared to  2017’s annual results.

Last year, the U.K. Parliament finally voted to move forward with an expansion at the airport, including the addition of a third runway – among other projects – which has met resistance from the community since its initial proposal in 2006.

LHR said that this week that it is moving forward with the project by “delivering an expanded airport by launching a consultation on airspace modernization.”

“We are on track to deliver an expanded Heathrow in the early years of Brexit, which will keep Britain as one of the world’s great trading nations,” said John Holland-Kaye, CEO of LHR.

The airport said that, over the year, North American cargo accounted for the majority of volume, making up about 38 percent of the total, and Asia-Pacific cargo came in second highest at about 32 percent.