Eurostar’s ticket sales for 2009 totalled a record £675.5m, an increase of 1.7% on 2008.

The volume of travellers year on year increased by 1.2% to hit 9.2m – despite the chaos caused by bad weather over the Christmas and New Year period.

Eurostar’s Brussels route saw the highest growth in 2009. 

The number of passengers travelling between London and Brussels increased by 6% in 2009 compared to 2008.

Eurostar’s Paris route saw a 1% increase in the number of travellers.

An upturn in overall sales for 2009 meant that revenue for 2009 increased by 1.7%, boosted by a strong leisure sales performance with sales of these tickets up by 15.6% year-on-year. 

A statement from Eurostar read:

“Whilst the economic environment remained challenging throughout the year, the second half of 2009 saw a ‘bottoming-out’ in the business market.”

Eurostar also stated it had put in place “a number of operational and communication improvements” to ensure that the issues which plagued the service over Christmas do not recur.

The extreme weather conditions caused numerous delays and cancellations as trains hit warm tracks in the tunnel and ground to a halt.

Eurostar also recently revealed that it had been forced to take a £10m hit in terms of compensation paid out to travellers affected by the disruption.

Eurostar returned to full service in February 2009 following the partial closure of the Tunnel in September 2008 and punctuality levels remain at 95%.