Heathrow saw its busiest ever day on July 29th, as 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.

Over 7.8 million passengers travelled through the UK’s only hub airport last month, up by 3.7 per cent on last year.

The airport’s already popular North American routes saw significant growth of 8.1 per cent, with a total of 1.8 million passengers taking off, driven by larger, fuller aircraft.

Heathrow chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, 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.”