Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) announced today that it has signed a unique and targeted Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Heathrow Airport (LHR), committing both airports to working closer together to support the recovery from COVID-19.

“Heathrow is PHL’s busiest transatlantic route with more than 2,200 annual flights and 455,000 onboarded passengers in 2019,” said PHL CEO Chellie Cameron. “This partnership will help us safely restart travel for our most important transatlantic trade corridor.”

The MOU focuses on boosting passenger numbers, implementing innovative measures, increasing international cooperation, working with stakeholders across our industries and working jointly to advocate the airports’ respective government and industry organizations.

“We have been working closely with PHL over the past six months - exchanging information and best practice  supporting the delivery of a safe and secure environment for our passengers,” said LHR CEO John Holland-Kaye. “We wanted to take this engagement a step further by signing an MoU as we work hard to bring back a safe and meaningful restart of travel between the UK and U.S.”

The MOU represents a framework by which the airports can help the LHR-PHL route and United States-United Kingdom connectivity recover. LHR and PHL have also jointly penned a letter to the U.S. and UK governments, which supports the removal of border restrictions to reflect the success of the vaccination programs and leads to the safe reopening of travel between the two countries. The two airports have also engaged their counterparts at American Airlines and British Airways to increase airline to airport coordination.