BAA reports rise in passenger numbers
Airports operator BAA today said passenger numbers at its seven British sites grew in 2005 – despite a marked slump in charter flights.
Across the year it handled 144.34 million people – an increase of 3% on 2004 - though there was an 8.7% fall in European charter traffic as some airlines continued the trend of diversifying into scheduled flying to compete against low-cost carriers.
The annual figure for passenger numbers emerged as BAA said its airports handled 10.7 million passengers in December, up 2% on a year earlier.
Southampton airport showed BAA’s biggest improvement across 2005, dealing with 1.84 million passengers – a 19.9% rise on last year.
Over the calendar year, Heathrow saw passenger numbers increase by 0.9% to 67.7 million, Gatwick by 4.2% to 32.7 million and Stansted by 2.5% to 22 million.
