Heathrow bucks BAA's slight passenger fall

A DIP in holiday flights meant BAA's six UK airports handled slightly fewer passengers last month than in August 2009 despite a rise in Heathrow numbers, it was revealed yesterday.

Just under 10.65 million people passed through the airports in August 2010 - a 0.6 per cent fall on last year.

Heathrow recorded its busiest-ever August and its second busiest month, with numbers rising to 6.54 million - a 2.5 per cent increase on August 2009.

BAA said Heathrow benefited from its greater exposure to the business travel sector, while its other UK airports depended more on "the currently weak UK outbound leisure market".

It added that this holiday-flight market "continues to be adversely affected by the continuing economic uncertainty that has led to casualties among smaller UK tour operators".

European scheduled traffic was up 10.4 per cent at Heathrow last month. But at Stansted airport, reductions in airline seat capacity contributed to a 6.1 per cent drop in passengers carried.

North of the Border, Glasgow airport handled 9.4 per cent fewer passengers last month, while Edinburgh's traffic dipped by 0.2 per cent overall, although European traffic grew by 9.4 per cent. Aberdeen recorded an overall decrease of 4 per cent.

At Southampton the decline was limited to 1 per cent.

Cargo tonnage at the group's UK airports is now 2.8 per cent above its pre-recession peak, "reflecting the strength of recovery in the air cargo market".