BAA posts record passenger traffic for 2004

Lorna Strickland

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The UK airports group records 6.9% traffic growth in 2004 to post its highest ever passenger numbers

BAA's UK airports handled a record 140.1m passengers in 2004, up 6.9% on 2003. Traffic grew 4.6% in December, reaching 10.5m passengers.

Heathrow airport recorded a 6.2% increase in December, to 37.1m passengers while Gatwick traffic rose 5% to 31.4m. Stansted achieved growth of 11.7%, to 20.9m passengers, and Southampton grew 25.7% to 1.5m. In Scotland, Glasgow's passenger numbers rose 5.5% to 8.6m, Edinburgh's rose 7% to 8m and Aberdeen's rose 5% to 2.6m.

For the same month long-haul flight passengers rose 9.4%, with a 6.2% rise in domestic passengers. European scheduled passenger numbers increased by 5.1%. Travellers across the North Atlantic fell by 1.2% and European charter passengers fell 2.9%.

The company reported that "the tragic events arising from the south Asian tsunami occurred late in the month and had a negligible impact on traffic?.