BAA July traffic trend flat

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UK airports operator, BAA reported a 0.4% rise in passengers in July due to fast-expanding low-cost airlines and the holiday season, although the lucrative transatlantic market remained depressed

BAA said today its seven airports handled a total of 12.9m passengers in July, but the recovery on North Atlantic routes remained slow, down by 9.1%, while traffic on other long haul routes was 5.1% weaker.

The fastest growing market was domestic, up 10%, helped by low fares at Gatwick, Stansted and the main Scottish airports. Irish traffic rose 6.6% with low fares also fuelling the market. European charter traffic added 2.3% and European scheduled traffic grew 0.6%.

Among individual airports Edinburgh, up 15.4%, Stansted, up 12.7% and Glasgow, up 6.5%, were again the fastest growing, almost entirely driven by competitive fares said BAA. Glasgow also experienced a 4.7% increase in European charter traffic.

London Heathrow's performance was flat against July last year, down 0.1%, while London Gatwick recorded its second best result since September 2001, down 7.7%.