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It shouldn’t really be surprising, but the scale of the impact COVID-19 has had on the UK (and global) aviation industry is starkly illustrated by the latest information from Heathrow Airport, which shows a massive 97% decline in passenger numbers in April:

“Passenger numbers declined by 18.3% during Q1 to 14.6 million and are expected to be down by around 97% in April. We expect passenger demand will remain weak until governments around the world deem it safe to lift travel restrictions. Overall revenue fell 12.7% to £593 million and adjusted EBITDA fell by 22.4% to £315 million.”

The airport’s management has been scrambling to reduce costs wherever possible and as part of that programme, Terminals 3 and 4 have been closed, with the flights moving to Terminal 2 and Terminal 5:

“Terminal 3: All passenger flights from Terminal 3 have been temporarily relocated to Terminals 2 and 5, marking the temporary end of passenger operations in T3.

All passenger operations in Terminal 4 will be temporarily suspended from Sunday 3 May, with rail operations suspended from Friday 8 May. Please see www.heathrow.com/whichterminal for the latest update.

Terminal consolidation: from Sunday 3 May, the following airlines will be temporarily relocated to Terminal 2 from Terminal 4.

Air France, KLM, Alitalia, Kenya Airways, Kuwait Airways, Etihad Airways, Korean Air, Air Malta, El Al, and Malaysia Airlines.

Please check www.heathrow.com/whichterminal for the latest updates.”

Bottom line

If you do have to fly at the moment, make sure you regularly check the latest information with both the airline and the airport, to ensure you don’t get caught out by the massive organisational changes that are currently a feature of air travel.