London Heathrow airport handled 1.54m tonnes of cargo in 2016, a 3% increase on prior year.
Heathrow, the fourth largest European cargo hub by volumes in 2015, finished strongly with a 5.1% increase in December with 133,641 tonnes.
The final month rise was driven, in particular, by growth to emerging market destinations: Brazil up 18.6%, India up 12.1% and China up 8.3% said a spokesperson.
Heathrow chief John Holland-Kaye said: “Heathrow celebrated 70 years as the country’s front door in 2016 and I’m proud that we were able to end this year on such a high note.
“Whether it was welcoming back a triumphant Team GB from Rio or giving that special Heathrow service to a record number of passengers, increasing Britain’s trade with the rest of the world or securing Government support for expansion – Heathrow is Britain’s airport and we will continue to help all of our country thrive for decades to come.”
Heathrow is also pushing ahead with plans for a third runway, although it awaits a final approval by MPs in Westminster at the end of this year.
So far only a handful of the major European hubs have published their 2016 cargo tonnages, with the big three: Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam yet to report.
German hub Cologne saw 2016 full year volumes up 3.7% to 786,000 tonnes, with Belgian gateways Liege and Brussels seeing tonnages up by 1.7% and 1.1% to 660,665 tonnes and 495,000 tonnes respectively, with Milan’s Malpensa airport recording an 8.8% rise to 544,000 tonnes for the full year.
