Airport Firm BAA's profits soar to £175m
British airports operator BAA today said it had made an excellent start to the year as quarterly operating profits climbed 18.2% to £175m (€265m).
BAA said all its operations had done well in the three months to June 30, with a record number of passengers passing through its airports, which include Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted among others.
It said improvements to security screening and equipment such as escalators had helped it to cut passenger waiting times and to cope with peak period passenger growth.
The group added that its Terminal 5 project at Heathrow was ahead of schedule and on budget.
Chief executive Mike Clasper said: “Overall, these results give confidence that our performance is on track for the year.”
BAA owns seven airports, including the big three in London and Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton.
It said quarterly group revenues came in at £534m (€808.4m), 11.3% up on the comparable quarter last year, while pre-tax profits increased by 25.2% to £159m (€240.7m).
Passenger numbers at the group’s airports increased by 9.7% to 35.9 million, led by 11.3% growth at Heathrow and 15.8% growth at Stansted.
The group’s UK airports business, which includes newspaper and confectionery retailer World Duty Free, reported an 11.2% rise in three-monthly revenues to £498m (€753.9m) and operating profits of £164m (€248.3m), up 15.5%.
Capital spending during the quarter was £345m (€522.4m) against £301m (€455.8m) previously, of which £202m (€305.9m) related to Terminal 5 against £151m (€228.6m) last time.
BAA said the number of people using its Heathrow Express train service from London Paddington increased by 13.5% during the quarter, with revenues growing to £17m (€25.7m) from £16m (€24.2m) previously.
Profits rose to £4m (€6m) from £2m (€3m) beforehand due to the increase in revenues and lower costs compared with last year, when track closures over Easter caused increased operating costs.
Revenue from the group’s international business climbed 27% to £14m (€21.2m) and operating profits increased by £3m (€4.5m) to £4m (€6m) due to factors including revenue growth at Naples Airport in Italy and a new retail management contract at Baltimore in the US.
