(Reuters) -Britain's Heathrow Airport on Friday said it expects annual revenue to improve to 3.61 billion pounds ($4.96 billion) in 2025, driven by better-than-expected long-haul flights amid
Heathrow Airport Upgrades Revenue Forecast to Nearly $5 Billion
(Reuters) -Britain's Heathrow Airport raised its annual revenue expectations on Friday following better-than-expected demand for long-haul flights amid rebounding leisure demand.
The airport, the busiest hub in Europe, expects to clock 3.61 billion pounds ($4.96 billion) of annual revenues in 2025, above prior estimates of 3.57 billion pounds.
While easing inflation and living costs have stimulated a recovery in travel demand, ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainties in the Middle East and the United States have made the market more challenging for leisure companies.
Heathrow said it saw some early signs of softness on business-heavy routes, but linked it to economic uncertainty rather than geopolitical reasons.
It expects higher passenger movements and increasing aircraft sizes to drive more capacity and new direct routes to stimulate additional demand for the rest of the year.
Heathrow maintained their passenger traffic projection of 84.2 million for 2025, a slight improvement over last year's numbers.
However, costs for the airport are also slated to increase this year, on rising expenses due to increased security demands, additional service mitigations and higher contractual costs from national insurance.
Heathrow expects adjusted operating costs to rise to 1.63 billion pounds in 2025, up 7.2% over 2024 and an increase of 17 million pounds versus its December investor report.
($1 = 0.7280 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
