BAA reports rise in passenger numbers
11.01.12
BAA’s UK airports served just over 8 million passengers in December, an increase of 12.7% on 2010. However, the increase was mainly attributable to the impact of snow in December 2010. After adjusting for the snow, passenger numbers were up by 0.6%, which was still better than the underlying performance in October (-1.3%) and November (-1.6%).
December 2011 was Heathrow’s busiest December ever, with the highest number of passengers (5,517,300), Air Transport Movements (38,126) and cargo (124,371tonnes). It was also the first underlying growth in cargo since February 2011. The headline increase in passenger numbers of 14.7% was again largely due to the impact of snow in December 2010. After adjusting for the snow, the underlying increase was 2.8%, the highest since June 2011.
BAA’s airports served 108.5m passengers last year, an increase of 4.4%. After adjusting for exceptional events in 2010 such as BA strikes, volcanic ash and snow disruption, the underlying increase was 0.9%.
Edinburgh saw record traffic of 9.4m in 2011 beating the previous record set in 2009 (9.0m). Heathrow also saw record passenger figures with 69.4m passengers passing through its airport’s terminals. The previous record was 67.9m set in 2007. Record passenger numbers accompanied record efficiency levels with the average aircraft operating with 75.2% of its seats occupied. There was also a record 476,197 flights, which represent 99.2% of Heathrow’s annual limit of 480,000.
However, BAA Chief Executive, Colin Matthews, warned that the UK risks falling behind its European neighbours unless more capacity is found at Heathrow. He said: ‘As the UK’s only international hub airport, Heathrow is central to developing our trade links with fast-growing emerging markets. Capacity constraints are damaging the UK economy today when the country can least afford it. A new hub airport has been proposed in the South East, but this has a projected cost of £50billion and may take decades to build. During this time we would be handing over on a plate the UK's historic trade advantages to our European competitors.’
BAA UK Airport passenger statistics (December 2011):
Terminal Passengers (000s) | Month | % Change | Jan to Dec 2011 | % Change |
Heathrow | 5,517.3 | 14.7 | 69,391.4 | 5.5 |
Stansted | 1,175.5 | -3.5 | 18,042.4 | -2.8 |
Southampton | 117.3 | 26.7 | 1,762.5 | 1.6 |
Glasgow | 420.4 | 16.8 | 6,864.0 | 5.1 |
Edinburgh | 591.6 | 25.0 | 9,384.7 | 9.2 |
Aberdeen | 235.0 | 19.1 | 3,103.8 | 11.8 |
BAA UK Total | 8,056.9 | 12.7 | 108,548.8 | 4.4 |
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