Early Easter dents BAA footfall

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Passenger numbers at BAA's seven UK airports registered a 4.5% drop in April compared with the same month last year

The company has attributed the lower footfall (9.7m people) to the earlier Easter this year, which meant that the holiday build-up fell entirely in March.

London Heathrow (-3.5%) and Gatwick (-18.3%) airports were hit by significant losses in European charter and North Atlantic traffic-18.4% and 12.4% respectively - and a small decrease on European scheduled routes.

However, three of the operator's airports made gains on the same period last year. Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stansted airports all experienced growth underpinned by the success of low-cost scheduled airlines.