Heathrow Airport plunges to £2billion loss amid 'toughest year in its 75 year history'

Britain's biggest airport has reported a loss of more than £2billion, after the "toughest year by far" in its 75-year history.

The airport crashed to an annual loss of £2.01bn for the 12 months to December 31, down from a profit of £546m in 2019, a statement said on Wednesday.

Heathrow bosses said the figures "underlined the devastating impact of Covid-19 on aviation".

It comes as passenger numbers collapsed 73% to 22.1million last year, with a new red list severely restricting travel while the Foreign Commonwealth Office continues to advise against all non-essential travel.

More than half of those passengers travelled in January and February last year - before the pandemic began. By April 2020, passengers had fallen to only 3% of 2019 levels.

Heathrow called on the government to agree a common international travel standard to allow travel to restart in the summer and to provide tax breaks for airports to help them ride out the crisis.

Travel restrictions have decimated the aviation industry with passenger numbers just 3% of those in 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

Under Boris Jonson's lockdown exit strategy to manage rising Covid variants, international travel is not set to resume until at least 17 May, 2021.

"Government policies over recent months have effectively closed borders. We have had no government support, other than furlough, and have not been given relief from business rates, unlike other airports, retail and hospitality businesses," the airport said.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow's chief executive, added: "2020 has been the toughest year by far in Heathrow’s 75-year history.

Still Britain's biggest airport, Heathrow last year lost its title as the busiest in Europe to Paris as its flight schedules contracted more than its rival's (Getty Images)

"But despite £2billlion of losses and shrinking to passenger levels we haven’t seen since the 70s, I am hugely proud of the way that our colleagues have kept our passengers safe and the UK’s hub airport open for vital supplies throughout," he added.

"We can be hopeful for 2021, with Britain on the cusp of becoming the first country in the world to safely resume international travel and trade at scale."

Heathrow introduced pay cuts to deal with the financial ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic in December.

The organisation reduced the pay of 3% of its staff by 20%, while 1% of employees received pay cuts of 25%.

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