Europe's busiest airport reported a record-breaking summer, boosted by Americans flying in to watch Taylor Swift and the Olympics

• London's Heathrow Airport said it had a "super summer" for rider traffic.
• Europe's busiest airdrome said musicians for illustration Taylor Swift and nan Olympics had boosted footfall.
• Swift helped boost rider numbers coming into Europe, pinch thousands of American fans flying over.

Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, has raised its forecast for yearly rider numbers successful 2024 aft having a record-breaking engaged play that it has termed a "super summer."

From June to September, 30.7 cardinal passengers passed done Heathrow, bringing nan full for nan first 9 months of nan twelvemonth to 63.1 million, nan airdrome usability said successful its quarterly earnings report.

"Consecutive record-breaking weeks and beardown operational capacity characterised nan summertime months," Heathrow said, adding that it had knowledgeable some nan busiest departures and busiest arrivals time successful nan airport's history connected 24 July and 2 September, respectively.

The airdrome said it now expects 83.8 cardinal passengers to walk done its doors successful 2024, up from its erstwhile estimate of 82.8 million.

Heathrow credited nan unusually heavy summertime traffic to Olympic visitors taking advantage of European metropolis breaks and to "iconic euphony stars" visiting nan UK. The airdrome is Europe's biggest hub, pinch flights from 84 countries and each continent isolated from Antarctica.

Major performers visiting nan UK and Europe this summertime included Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.

Heathrow didn't specifically sanction Swift, but aft kicking disconnected nan European limb of her worldwide "The Eras tour" successful May, she played 45 sold-out stadium shows successful Europe complete nan summer, including 15 successful nan UK.

Swift's beingness was expected to boost nan UK system by £997 cardinal ($1.26 billion), according to a study from Barclays.

Planeloads of US fans person followed Swift crossed nan Atlantic, creating a arena that nan recreation institution Expedia termed 'tour tourism.'

In Paris, wherever nan vocalist kicked disconnected nan European limb of her circuit pinch 4 back-to-back shows, 20% of tickets had been purchased by Americans, The Associated Press reported.

The International Air Transport Association predicted that 2024 would beryllium a record-breaking year for hose profits and rider numbers. 4.7 cardinal journeys are expected to beryllium made done airports this year, an summation of 200 cardinal connected grounds pre-pandemic levels group successful 2019.

Despite nan maturation successful rider numbers, Heathrow reported a 3.2% driblet successful gross for nan first 9 months of 2024 to £2.65 cardinal ($3.44 billion). The airport's operating institution announced plans to put complete £1 cardinal ($1.3 billion) into nan airdrome this year.