OREANDA-NEWS. 5.8 million passengers passed through Heathrow in March 2014, down 2.8% on March 2013

Seats per aircraft increased 1.9% whilst load factors decreased 3.6 percentage points, to 72.2%. Passengers per aircraft decreased 3% to 146.6

The reduction in traffic and load factors reflects the shift of Easter holidays into April this year, from March last year

Within the emerging markets, Mexico was up 19%, China was up 11.6% and Turkey was up 7.2%

Cargo was up 4% on the previous year

March saw Terminal 5 receive the Skytrax 'World's Best Airport Terminal' award for a third year in a row, whilst Heathrow won the 'Best Airport for Shopping' for a fifth time at the World Airport Awards

March also saw Dubai Airport report higher international passenger numbers than Heathrow over a two month period for the first time

Heathrow CEO Colin Matthews said:

“Passenger numbers were in line with expectations in March, consistent with the Easter bank holiday moving from March last year to April this year.

Dubai's announcement that it has overtaken Heathrow in the last two months shows that the UK will soon no longer have the world's number one airport for international passenger traffic. We want Britain to continue to compete globally against the best hub airports in the world but without a third runway, Heathrow's comparative decline will make the whole of the UK a less attractive to do business.”