BRITAIN's failure to introduce passenger testing has seen Heathrow overtaken by Paris's Charles de Gaulle for the first time as Europe's busiest airport, its boss said today.
Announcing a 58.7% crash in revenue to £951million and pre-tax losses of £1.5billion in the first nine months of 2020, chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “Britain is falling behind because we’ve been too slow to embrace passenger testing. European leaders acted quicker and now their economies are reaping the benefits.
"Paris has overtaken Heathrow as Europe’s largest airport for the first time ever, and Frankfurt and Amsterdam are quickly gaining ground.
"Bringing in pre-departure COVID tests and partnering with our US allies to open a pilot airbridge to America will kickstart our economic recovery and put the UK back ahead of our European rivals."
Heathrow's third-quarter revenue fell by 72% year on year to £239 million, while earnings before tax and interest dropped to £37 million.
Passenger numbers between July and September were down by more than 84% compared with the same period in 2019.
The outlook for next year's passenger numbers has been slashed as the pandemic continues to crush demand, with 37 million people expected to travel through the airport in 2021, down 41% on a June forecast of 63 million passengers.
Britain has said it will bring in airport testing by the beginning of December. Tightening travel restrictions this autumn have hit airlines and airports, ruining hopes for a recovery.
But the company said its liquidity position was strong and it had sufficient cash reserves for the next 12 months even if travel stopped completely.
The airport is owned by Spain's Ferrovial, the Qatar Investment Authority and China Investment Corp among others.
