Flying Into Heathrow May Be Cheaper in 2024 — What to Know

Passengers flying into one of Europe’s largest airports may see slightly cheaper airfares in 2024. 

A new government regulation is reducing the amount of fees that London’s Heathrow airport can collect from airlines per passenger by 20 percent.

London’s Heathrow Airport's fees that are charged to airlines for using the airport will decrease from £31.57 (or $38.04) per passenger to £25.43 (or $30.64) per passenger, a spokesperson for the UK Civil Aviation Authority confirmed to Travel + Leisure. 

“Our priority in making this decision today is to ensure the traveling public can expect great value for money from using Heathrow in terms of having a consistently good quality of service, whilst paying no more than is needed for it.” Chief Executive at the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Richard Moriarty, additionally said in a statement shared with T+L this week.

The decision, which was marked as “final”, takes into account the anticipated rebound of more travelers flying into the airport in the coming years, in a post-pandemic travel environment. 

However, while this may be good news for travelers, not everyone is happy about this decision. 

London’s Heathrow Airport, which is owned and operated by an independent business holding company, Heathrow Airport Limited, shared with T+L they disagree with CAA on this change.  

“This makes no sense and will do nothing for consumers at a time when the CAA should be incentivising investment to rebuild service. We will now take some time to carefully consider our next steps.” a Heathrow spokesperson said in a statement to T+L. 

The tug of war over airport fees exposes a complicated relationship between airport operators, airlines, and governments. Heathrow Airport Limited points out that airlines are making massive profits and the airport is losing money because of low passenger volume and higher financing costs. 

Over 5.4 million passengers flew through Heathrow in January 2023 according to airport data.