Heathrow has released new data revealing the variety and volume of seasonal exports that fly in the bellyhold of aircraft in the month leading up to Christmas.
The airport’s data from November and December last year shows a spike in the volume of Christmas staples coming into the airport and flying out to non-EU destinations, ranging from Christmas lights and frozen lobster to calendars and dried flowers.
The most popular export to non-EU destinations by weight from November to December 2016 was salmon, with over 6m kilogrammes flown. The second most popular commodity by weight was books, with a recorded 4.8m kilogrammes going through the airport last year.
The top five export destinations (outside the EU) in 2016 were the US, in lead position with 15.31m kilogrammes, followed by China with 6.2m kilogrammes, the UAE with 3.8m kilogrammes, Australia with 3.4m kilogrammes and Hong Kong with 2.8m kilogrammes.
On December 12, Heathrow launched a “12 Exporters of Christmas” social media campaign: each day in the run up to Christmas, the airport will bring to light individual stories of small and medium-sized businesses around the country that rely on the airport to export British Christmas essentials across the world, including tea, jams and biscuits.
Already, Heathrow has seen a record 290.3m kilogrammes of exports flying through the airport to non-EU destinations from January to October this year – an 8.5% increase from the same period last year. These exports are worth an astounding £39.62bn.
“Heathrow is at its busiest time at Christmas – and this year, we not only expect record numbers of passengers to fly through, but also a record amount of cargo to be flown in the holds under their feet. Santa may still have the claim on the most deliveries on Christmas Eve, but for the months before it, Heathrow is doing its bit to export our British Christmas across the world.”
