More passengers keep UK airports busy
Airlines slashing fares in February to encourage winter travel contributed to a 4.6% hike in traffic at airports operated by BAA, it emerged today.
Around 9.6 million passengers passed through airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted last month as aggressive marketing tactics proved a continuing success.
Long-haul travel to destinations outside North America grew at the strongest pace – up 9.5% – as a rosier picture of the economies of Middle Eastern and Asian nations encouraged citizens to take to the skies.
At the same time, it is thought that freezing conditions in the UK helped to drive demand for flights scheduled by budget airlines to Europe.
BAA said passenger traffic rose 4.8% last month after stripping out the impact of the extra day included in comparable figures for 2004, which was a leap year. On a reported basis, the rise was lower at 0.8%.
All airports recorded gains, with Heathrow up 3.3%, Gatwick rising 9.5% and Stansted adding 4% on an underlying basis.
BAA’s three Scottish airports saw a like-for-like increase of 4.3% to 1.26 million passengers while traffic through Southampton airport rose by 2.2% to 109,100.
But markets for European charter flights continued to weaken last month, falling 4.4% against a year ago and in contrast to the growth of low-fare services.
No-frills travel helped Irish traffic to accelerate by 8.6% last month and European scheduled traffic rose 5.4%.
Today’s figures represent continued growth for BAA, which in common with other aviation industry players has been recovering from the setbacks of Sars, the Iraq war and terrorism in previous years.
In January, the group reported an 18.1% rise in profits to £521m (€752m) in the nine months to December 31, with chief executive Mike Clasper highlighting achievements including a pay settlement with unions and the completion of more than half of terminal five at Heathrow.
