Major jobs boost at Heathrow Airport as airlines start to bounce back from pandemic

Video report by ITV News Meridian's Mike Pearse

There is a major jobs boost at Heathrow Airport as airlines start to recover from the pandemic.

Recovery at airports like Heathrow, Gatwick and Southampton has been slow, but as travel restrictions ease, British Airways is recruiting thousands of staff after mass layoffs last year.

The biggest market at Heathrow Airport is the United States.

In just over a week, new rules means we can travel to America for the first time since the start of the pandemic. 

United Airlines bosses say demand is so strong, by next summer they will have a record 22 flights a day. That compares with just three during much of the coronavirus crisis.

Sharon from Buckinghamshire has worked at Heathrow for 23 years. 

Sharon said: "The staff, everyone is excited. It's a really exciting day for us all here. It's lovely to see passengers who we have not seen for two years."

For every job at Heathrow, two more are supported in the service sector from food to taxi drivers who drop off people here.

Bob Schumacher from United Airlines said: "At a time when the country is preparing to hunker down for winter winter, the clocks change this weekend the company is looking out to the opportunity 2022 brings, with so many people desperate to go travel again and no place less than the US where we have just watched a booking curve go up like a hockey stick." 

Recovery will take time and some predict it will be two years before it is fully back to normal, but it seems an industry hit so hard by is finally on the way up.