Late Easter boosts BAA April traffic

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BAA's seven UK airports handled a total of 9.9m passengers in April, an increase of 1.6% on the same month last year

The figures were boosted by a late Easter, with European charter (+17.8%), domestic (+8.6%), Irish (+3.4%) and European scheduled traffic (+1%) all seeing gains. SARS and the effects of the Iraq conflict continued to hamper North Atlantic (-7.5%) and other long haul traffic (-7.5%).

Gatwick increased numbers by 7.9% overall and Stansted by 4.4%, while Heathrow experienced a 3.6% decline. Southampton registered a 42% increase due to a new range of scheduled low fare routes, and Glasgow (+9.1%) and Edinburgh (+10.5%) were also aided by the growth in low fare services.