Birmingham airport (BHX) has become the latest UK airport to exceed pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels.
A total of 1,106,000 passengers travelled through the airport in October, compared to 1,101,000 during the same period in 2019.
BHX says it now expects its 2023/24 traffic to “draw level or even exceed” that of 2019/20, when it served more than 12 million customers.
The airport is currently in the midst of a £50 million project to construct a new security hall, with works expected to be completed by June 2024.
This in turn is part of a £300 million capital investment programme which will increase the airport’s capacity to 18 million passengers per year by 2033.
Last month Heathrow reported its highest ever September traffic figures, welcoming just over 7 million customers over the month, compared to 6.8 million in September 2019.
And earlier this month Manchester airport said that it served 2.6 million passengers in October, equivalent to 105 per cent of 2019 levels.
Commenting on the news Tom Screen, aviation director for BHX, said:
“Last month our customer numbers were 100.4 per cent of what they were [in] October 2019 – officially the first month we’ve surpassed pre-pandemic numbers, having been hovering in the high nineties for quite a while.
“It’s good to hit this milestone as we continue to recover from Covid. With more routes, more airlines and more based aircraft, it’s no surprise we’re seeing more customers.
“Meanwhile construction of our state-of-the-art new security hall is due to be complete by June 2024. This is part of £300m of upgrades to BHX planned in the coming decade. We’re on our way to becoming a bigger, better, greener airport for our customers.”