BAA airport traffic up 0.8% in April
11.05.05
Passenger traffic at BAA’s airports increased by just 0.8% in April 2005 compared to a year earlier. BAA said the small increase was in part because of the early Easter this year.
'The lower than usual growth was primarily the result of the early Easter,' BAA said in a statement on the figures, adding that underlying passenger traffic, taking in March and April figures together, was up 4.2%.
BAA, whose seven airports include London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted plus Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, said it carried 11.5 million passengers in April compared with 11.6 million in March. In the 12 months to the end of April BAA’s airports handled 141.8 million passengers, an increase of 5.2% on the previous 12 months.
Low-cost flights to European cities has driven much of the passenger growth in recent years, and BAA said European traffic rose 1.8% in the month. Passenger numbers in the short haul charter market fell by 21%, as a result of cuts in the winter schedule by tour operators, and North Atlantic traffic was unchanged. Long haul routes continued a trend of strong growth, BAA said, rising 6.9% in the month.
The company has previously said that it expected a slow down from the recent high rate of passenger growth in this financial year. BAA also said that growth at heathrow would be limited as it nears capacity, until the new Terminal 5 opens next year.
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