Heathrow passenger numbers down 83% in March

Heathrow Airport passenger numbers fell 83% in March compared to the same month last year, Britain’s biggest airport said in a statement on Monday, as the pandemic continued to hit travel.

Britain’s aviation industry is hoping that flying will rebound in late May once COVID-19 restrictions are eased, but uncertainty remains after government proposals for allowing travel fell short of industry hopes.

UK opens up after three month lockdown

People queued up outside retailers across England on Monday to release their pent-up shopping fever and some grabbed a midnight pint or even an early haircut as England’s shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers reopened after three months of lockdown.

After imposing the most strictest restrictions in Britain’s history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening was a “major step” towards freedom but urged people to behave responsibly as the coronavirus was still a threat.

As the sun rose, dozens of people queued up outside Primark in English cities such as Birmingham and outside JD Sports on Oxford Street in London, undeterred by the unseasonably cold weather.

Some folk lined up after midnight to raise a pint with fellow revellers at the Kentish Belle in Bexleyheath, south London, and at the Oak Inn in Coventry, central England.

“I’m so excited to see my clients: to see how they are and give them that feeling that they get from having had their hair done,” Maggie Grieve, who manages Beaucatcher hairdressers in north London, told Reuters.