More empty seats on British flights
The British Aviation Authority highlighted the “lingering effects” of the London bombings today as it said demand for flights at its seven airports weakened last month.
While the group handled 12.6 million passengers in October – an increase of 1% on a year earlier – the average load factor fell by two percentage points as airlines flew 4% more seats but carried fewer people on each service.
BAA said less aggressive discounting by airlines, coupled with the effect of the London bombings and Hurricane Wilma, which had an impact on travel to the Caribbean and Florida, were likely to be factors in the fall.
The company’s shares slipped by 2% following the update.
BAA’s biggest airport, Heathrow, experienced a drop of 0.8% in passenger numbers to 5.7 million, but the other six sites – Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen – improved volumes.
Heathrow’s decline was driven by a 5% fall in domestic traffic while European scheduled business was off 2.3%.
The fastest growth was achieved at Southampton with a 17.7% rise as the airport continued to attract more low-cost services.
Aberdeen grew by 7.1% while Gatwick handled 2.5% more passengers, despite a 6.8% drop in charter traffic.
