BAA traffic figures slip back

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BAA's seven UK airports handled a total of 11.6m passengers in June, a drop of 1.4% compared to the same month last year

This compares to a 0.8% year-on-year increase in May.

BAA said traffic was adversely affected by a series of European air traffic control disputes and by some loss of business travel due to the additional bank holiday for the Jubilee.

Among key markets, domestic traffic, up 5.3%, remained strong, boosted by low-cost carrier growth, while the extra bank holiday helped European charter traffic to add 4.1%. Irish traffic, down 1.1%, was hit by the Aer Lingus dispute while European scheduled traffic, down 2.4%, was affected by Europe-wide and country-specific air traffic control disputes. The weakest sector continued to be the North Atlantic market, at -9.4%, with other long haul services down 3%.

Among individual airports Stansted, +11.9% and Edinburgh +8%, were again the fastest growing, closely followed by Glasgow, which rose 5.2%. Heathrow dipped by 1.8% and Gatwick by 8.6% in the month.