Record passengers for Heathrow and Edinburgh airports
13.06.11
BAA's six UK airports handled 9.3 million passengers last month, up 9.2% on May 2010, with Heathrow and Edinburgh airports reporting their busiest March, April, and May, and Heathrow enjoying a record 68 million passengers in a 12 month period for first time.
In addition to the busiest three month period, last month was the busiest ever May for Heathrow (5.9 million) and Edinburgh (826,000) airports. Heathrow’s passenger numbers grew by 11.6% over May 2010 - which was affected by volcanic ash and industrial action. Accounting for these issues leaves Heathrow with an estimated underlying 5.2% increase for the month. For the year to date Heathrow’s traffic is up 9.8% with underlying growth of 2.7%.
The late Easter holidays and Royal Wedding led to more passengers at the beginning of the month whereas the Grímsvötn eruption in Iceland led only to a marginal decrease in traffic. Stripping out the negative effects of events in 2010, the group recorded underlying growth of 1.7% in the year to date.
Both Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports reports double digit increases in the month (13.7% and 11.8% respectively) with underlying growth for the year to date of 6.9% and 7.0%. Traffic at Glasgow increased 7.0% in May 2011, whilst the underlying growth for the year to date was 1.3%.
Stansted saw its second consecutive monthly rise (0.7%) for the first time since October 2007, although on a year to date basis the underlying decline is 4.0%, reflecting the transfer of capacity by low-cost airlines to continental Europe. Southampton’s traffic was down 1.1% in the month, and down 7.0% on an underlying year to date basis, largely as a result of a drop in European scheduled traffic.
Cargo tonnage was down by 5.6% at group level and by 5.9% at Heathrow. This reflects the fact that May 2010 was a particularly strong month for air cargo, resulting from a backlog of freight not flown during the April volcanic ash shutdown.
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