A record 262,000 passengers flew in or out of Heathrow on 29th July, making it the busiest day in the airport's history.

The airport welcomed nearly 262,000 passengers in 24 hours. Overall, July reached unprecedented peaks, with over a quarter of a million passengers travelling through the airport on 19 different days in the month.

More than 7.8m passengers passed through the gates during the month, fuelled by larger, fuller aircraft to the US and new services to Asia-Pacific.

However, the airport's chief executive John Holland-Kaye said passengers' experience was still blighted by long passport control queues. He wants more passengers to be able to use e-gates.

He said: “It’s brilliant to see even more international visitors coming to the UK and supercharging the country’s economy this summer. However, too often their first impression of the UK is a long queue for immigration. The Home Office should let visitors from low risk countries, such as the US, use the same e-gates as EU visitors to give them a warm welcome to Britain.”