London Heathrow Airport’s COVID losses balloon to $3.4 bln.

Heathrow, the country’s busiest airport, recorded a first-quarter loss of 329 million pounds ($459 million), bringing the cumulative loss since the outbreak to nearly 2.4 billion pounds. Just 1.7 million passengers passed through the London airport in the three months ending March 31, down 91% compared to the first quarter of 2019.Heathrow, which lost its title as Europe’s busiest airport to Paris during the pandemic, said it had cut its passenger estimate for the year to a range of 13 million to 36 million, down from 81 million in 2019.
The aviation industry in the United Kingdom is hoping that once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in late May, flying will resume, but there is still concern about where people will be able to travel and how digital vaccine passports will operate.

London Heathrow Airport - London Airport Transfers — London Heathrow Airport – London Airport Transfers

Grant Shapps, the British transport secretary, has said he would chair a meeting of G7 transport ministers next week to negotiate vaccine passports before revealing in early May which countries will be available to Britons for travel.
Heathrow affirmed that the summer economic recovery of the United Kingdom focused on travel resuming on May 17. It said it would be ready to speed up operations as demand increased, but expressed doubts about the UK Border Force’s ability to avoid long lines at passport checkpoints for arriving passengers.Heathrow could charge airlines 30 pence more per passenger to help recover up to 3 billion pounds in pandemic losses, according to Britain’s aviation regulator, a fraction of what Heathrow had requested but enough to enrage British Airways’ owner. The Qatar Investment Authority, Spain’s Ferrovial (FER.MC), and China Investment Corp. are among the investors who own Heathrow.