BAA reports slight traffic rise in April

Emily Pacey

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BAA's seven UK airports report slow growth of 0.8% in passenger traffic for April

BAA's seven UK airports handled 0.8% more passengers in April 2005 than the previous year, welcoming a total of 11.5m travellers. The operator blamed the lower-than-usual growth on an early Easter.

BAA claimed that underlying growth is 4.2%, a figure derived by combining March and April figures. This eliminates the negative effect of Easter falling in March on April's figures.

All BAA's airports were badly affected in April. London Heathrow traffic figures dipped by 0.8%, and Gatwick recorded a gain of just 0.5%. However, new routes and higher flight frequencies enabled a 19.5% increase at Southampton.

Aberdeen recorded the airport group's second-highest growth figure, handling 5.8% more passengers than in April 2004. Scottish airports recorded a combined year-on-year increase of 2.9%.

As a comparison, in April 2004 BAA's UK airports handled 15% more passengers than in April 2003.