Heathrow blames quarantine rules for 82% fall in demand last month

Heathrow has warned that the Government's quarantine policy is costing jobs "every day" after recording an 82% decline in passenger numbers last month.

The west London airport wants testing to be permitted as a way of reducing the 14-day coronavirus quarantine requirement for arriving travellers.

Just 1.4 million people travelled through the airport in August, compared with 7.7 million during the same month in 2019.

Mainland Portugal, Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion were removed from the Government's quarantine exemption list for England on Thursday.

Travellers have until 4am on Saturday to return before the new rules are implemented.

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For holidaymakers scrambling to return from Portugal's Algarve to London on Friday, British Airways had flights to Heathrow costing £494, while easyJet had a flight to Gatwick for £286.

More than half of the passengers who used Heathrow in August were travelling to or from the European Union.

Demand for North American routes was down 95% year on year.

Heathrow said more than 30 airports around the world are already using coronavirus testing of travellers as a way of reducing quarantine requirements.

One of those airports, Germany's Frankfurt, has overtaken Heathrow in terms of passenger numbers.

The Heathrow boss added that ministers "urgently need to turn words into action" with regards to options to reduce quarantine for passengers who test negative for the virus.