BAA passengers up 0.8%; Heathrow has record July
11.08.11
Heathrow Airport had a record 6.9 million passengers in July, up 2.5%, as BAA reported growth of 0.8% across its six UK airports. The month also included the busiest day in Heathrow's history - on Sunday 31 July - and seven of its top ten days for passenger numbers were recorded during the month.
Heathrow's figures saw domestic passengers down 13.3% from a year earlier, thanks to a 16% cut in seating capacity by the airlines. But international air traffic more than made up the shortfall, led by a 5.4% increase in traffic to North America and an 80% surge in travellers to and from Brazil. At 84.7%, the average load factor (proportion of available aircraft seats filled) was the most efficient ever achieved. The total number of passengers at Heathrow during the 12 months to the end of July exceeded 68.5 million for the first time.
BAA's three Scottish airports all saw passenger growth, with Edinburgh up 3.3% to just short of one million passengers. Glasgow was up by 0.5% overall, due largely to a 45.7% increase in traffic on scheduled European services. Aberdeen saw growth in domestic traffic and even faster growth in international traffic, which helped it to reach an overall increase of 8.7%.
At Stansted numbers fell 7.2% to 1.9 million, even though it achieved its most efficient ever load factor of 88.5%. Southampton returned to growth with a 2.4% increase.
Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, said: 'The growth in passenger traffic at Heathrow in July is good news for UK jobs, tourism and growth. Heathrow's unique role in linking the UK to the world's emerging markets is vital to Britain's economic recovery.’
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