Charles de Gaulle soars past Heathrow as Europe's busiest airport

Heathrow airport is located on the outskirts of London, and is the UK's premier aviation hub. /Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

Heathrow has lost its coveted position as Europe's busiest airport, having been overtaken by Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

The switch is yet another example of the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation sector.

So far this year, 19 million passengers have traveled through Heathrow, a total surpassed by the 19.3 million passengers who used Charles de Gaulle.

"For the first time, Paris Charles de Gaulle has overtaken Heathrow as Europe's largest airport, with Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt close behind," Heathrow said in a statement accompanying its third-quarter results.

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Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye has blamed the results on the British government's failure to adopt widespread passenger testing for COVID-19 at the airport.

The airline industry wants a testing regime that allows people to avoid a two-week quarantine when they arrive back in the UK.

"Let's get on with it," urged Holland-Kaye on Wednesday. "Not just testing after you arrive, but let's get on with pre-departure testing so that even before someone gets on a plane, they know that they are COVID-free and that when they get to their destination, they can travel without any form of quarantine.

"That would allow us to get the UK economy back up to some kind of normality in a world where we're living with COVID-19 for many years to come," he said.

Heathrow is now trialing pre-departure virus testing and the British government says it wants the system up and running by December.But Holland-Kaye accuses the government of being too slow to act.

"Other countries are moving ahead with testing," he said. "Ireland and Canada, two very cautious countries, have done that in the last week. France and Germany have been well ahead of us – the French started testing back in June."

Heathrow has lost almost $2 billion this year, with passenger numbers plummeting 84 percent in the last quarter.

Holland-Kaye says that Heathrow has enough cash to carry it through for two years and indeed it could survive another 14 months without any passengers at all.

Even so, with a second wave of the virus sweeping across Europe this winter, the outlook for global travel in the next few months is dire.