City airport flies high as others suffer falls

Published on Wednesday 10 June 2009 10:08

EDINBURGH Airport was the only of BAA's airports to record passenger growth in May.

While the Spanish-owned firm's UK airports saw a 7.3 per cent decline in passenger numbers compared to the previous May, Edinburgh recorded a 1.4 per cent rise.

It is the second consecutive month that Edinburgh has achieved year-on-year passenger growth. BAA attributed the strong performance to the success of new low-cost routes.

The extent of the decline in passenger volumes in the year to date is lower in the Capital than any of the rest of the BAA airports.

In May, 821,700 people used Edinburgh Airport. The 1.4 per cent rise compares to an 11.7 per cent slump at Glasgow, to 649,600, and a 14.1 per cent decline in Aberdeen.

Edinburgh Airport, which is headed by managing director Gordon Dewar, is said to have fared better than most as it has less reliance on one market, with a large presence of both leisure and business-dominated flights.

BAA's London airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Standsted, also suffered a 7.4 per cent decline, to 9.9m.

"This remains consistent with the underlying traffic trends recorded since December last year, providing more evidence that demand conditions remain weak but are not changing materially," BAA said in a statement.

BAA said major European scheduled traffic was down 5.2 per cent, while North America declined by 9.1 per cent, while other long-haul routes recorded a collective 1.8 per cent decrease. Domestic traffic was down 10 per cent.

In the year so far, Edinburgh's passenger volumes are down 2.7 per cent at 3.4m, compared to an average decline across BAA's airports of 7.8 per cent, and 8.2 per cent in Scotland.

Today's rise in passenger numbers at Edinburgh is likely to strengthen BAA's resolve to hold on to Edinburgh Airport.

BAA is currently waging a battle against the Competition Commission's (CC) decision to make it sell three of its airports.

The commission recently ruled, after a long investigation, that BAA's ownership of seven UK airports was anti-competitive.

The CC said that BAA must sell Gatwick and Stansted airports as well as either Glasgow or Edinburgh. BAA had already decided to sell Gatwick in West Sussex and said last month that the sale process was continuing.

The latest Edinburgh passenger growth comes against the backdrop of a period of gloom for most of the aviation sector.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh recently warned staff that BA is in a fight for survival as it faces up to the worst conditions ever faced by the industry.

Mr Walsh also last night refused to rule out compulsory redundancies among BA's 40,000 staff after setting a three-week deadline to agree pay and job cuts.