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Royal wedding drives Heathrow Airport to 'busiest ever' May

Heathrow Airports Limited Heathrow brings a taste of the royal wedding to arriving passengersHeathrow Airports Limited
Just under 6.7m passengers travelled through Heathrow in May, driven by visitors travelling for the royal wedding

The royal wedding in which Prince Harry married Meghan led to Heathrow Airport recording its busiest ever May.

Just under 6.7m passengers travelled through the airport last month, a 3.1% increase compared with 2017.

Wedding watchers from the US travelling to Windsor pushed up numbers 5% on North American flights, the airport said.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex married at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on 19 May.

The airport's figures come a week after Heathrow was given the go-ahead by the Cabinet to build a third runway.

MPs will be given a vote on the scheme in the coming weeks.

There were 426,000 journeys on domestic routes, a 5.5% increase, led by flights to and from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Leeds, the airport added.

Chart of flights