BAA February traffic up 2.5%

Emily Pacey

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

BAA on track to end financial year with steady annual passenger growth

UK airports group BAA handled 9.8m passengers in February, an increase of 2.5% on the same month last year. The result indicates growth of just over 2% for the company's financial year ending in March.
 
The long-haul market (excluding North Atlantic traffic) performed best, with growth of 8.4% last February. European scheduled traffic, BAA's largest market, increased by 4.2%. The European charter sector continued to dwindle, last month by 11%, while North Atlantic traffic was down by 1.5%. UK domestic traffic rose by 0.5%.
 
Traffic at Heathrow fell by 0.4% in February to 4.7m passengers, largely owing to a continued decline in domestic traffic, this time of 6.7%. Gatwick and Stansted both recorded their best results since June 2005, with traffic at Gatwick rising by 5% to 2.1m, and at Stansted by 7% to 1.5m. BAA reported that both were driven by strong growth in European scheduled traffic.
 
In Scotland, Aberdeen airport continued to benefit from a surge in activity in the North Sea oil industry, welcoming 11.3% more passengers than in February last year. Traffic at Glasgow rose by 1.8% and at Edinburgh by 3.3%.