Bombs and strikes dent airport passenger forecasts
Airports operator BAA detailed the expected impact of the London bombings and strikes at Heathrow on its full-year passenger figures today.
The group, whose seven sites also include Gatwick and Stansted, predicted a 3% rise in passengers for its full financial year, compared with an original prediction of 3.5%.
It followed the impact of the July bombings and wildcat strikes that grounded the British Airways fleet at Heathrow last month, although BAA said underlying growth was on track.
BAA said in a trading statement ahead of its interim results that it handled 66 million passengers in the five months to the end of August. This represented a rise of 2.6% on the same period last year, despite including its busiest months.
The firm, whose other airports are at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton, said earlier this month that it handled 14.3 million passengers during August, an improvement of 0.5% on a year earlier.
British Airways – the biggest customer of BAA – was forced to suspend flights for more than 24 hours after baggage handlers walked out on August 11.
With people still wary about travelling after the London bombings, it also said at the time that 6.12 million passengers passed through Heathrow during the biggest month for the holiday season.
In today’s update, BAA also said its retail business continued to perform well and that it expected a 1% increase in the amount spent per passenger over the full year.
It added that operating costs – mainly energy bills and business rates – had risen as expected and said it was continuing its work to minimise the impact over the full year.
Meanwhile, the project to build a fifth terminal at Heathrow Airport remained on budget and ahead of schedule, and was now more than 65% complete.
