BAA traffic returns to growth

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BAA announced today passenger traffic through its UK airports was up 0.8% in May year-on-year as the no-frills airlines continued their expansion but the lucrative North Atlantic sector remained weak

BAA said North Atlantic traffic was down 4.6% in May year-on-year.

In a positive sign, BAA said the decline in passenger and cargo traffic through its airports seemed close to bottoming out. BAA said it handled a total of 10.7m passengers in May through its seven airports. For the financial year to May, total passengers were down 2.6% at 121.5m.

Amongst the individual airports Stansted continued its strong pattern of growth at +16.9% with strong domestic, Irish and European scheduled traffic underpinning the success.

Edinburgh grew +16.2% and Glasgow added +11.0%. Growth at these airports was strengthened by the low cost scheduled airlines and additional traffic generated by the European Champions League final in Glasgow.

Heathrow recorded an increase of +1.4% with North Atlantic traffic up +2.5% and other long haul traffic up +6.9%.

Gatwick -11.7%, was still affected by the transfer of routes to Heathrow, but easyJet continues to expand its network at the airport.

The combination of the economic downturn and the September 11 attacks last year caused demand for air travel to dive and sent the aviation industry into a tailspin. But passenger volumes on long-haul routes continue to recover slowly while budget carriers are making big gains on routes to European cities and thereby containing falls in airport user charges and and stimulating sales at BAA's retail outlets.