Positive trend continues for BAA

John Rimmer

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

The group reports passenger growth up 5.4% at its UK airports, with weak charter traffic offset by growth on European scheduled routes

BAA posted passenger growth of 5.4% across its seven UK airports in September. Traffic at London Heathrow reached almost 6m last month, an increase of 3.7% compared with the same month last year. Higher increases were posted at Southampton (an 18.9% rise to 154,400) London Gatwick (6.1% to 3.2m), London Stansted (7.1% to 1.9m), Glasgow (8.4% to 883,000) and Edinburgh (6.6% to 732,300).

BAA attributed the impressive growth posted at Southampton to the success of airline Flybe. The weak performance of charter markets, where traffic fell by 5.5%, was offset by strong growth on European scheduled routes, which posted an increase in passenger traffic of 8.6% year-on-year.

Throughout BAA's network, North Atlantic traffic grew by 7.9% compared with September 2003. Other long-haul routes enjoyed growth of 9.4%.