BAA passengers down 1.3%
11.11.11
BAA has reported a 'softening' in demand in October after seven months of growth, reflecting weakness in wider economic conditions. Passenger numbers at its UK airports fell by 1.3% during October compared with the same month last year. Domestic traffic fell by 9.9%, partially offset by increases in European scheduled and North Atlantic traffic of 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
BAA’s Scottish airports saw passenger numbers up 2.1%. Aberdeen continued its recent strong performance with a 7.6% increase; Glasgow was up by 0.3% overall and recorded increases of 35% in European scheduled traffic and 47% in North Atlantic passengers; and Edinburgh continued its strong and resilient growth with passenger numbers up 1.8%, with passenger growth helped by nearly twenty new routes that have launched at the airport since the beginning of the year.
At Heathrow, despite a drop of 1.3% in total passengers, its first monthly fall since December 2010, record traffic was seen over the school half-term. There was a 17% decline in passengers on domestic routes, which closely matched a 16% drop in the number of seats offered on these routes. European scheduled traffic was up 1.7% and North Atlantic up 0.3%.
Stansted saw lower levels of capacity particularly on domestic routes, which was the major factor in a drop of 4.9% in total passengers. However, 81.8% of seats were filled on its flights – a record for October. Southampton recorded a drop in passengers of 3%.
In total BAA’s airports recorded a drop of 0.8% in the total number of commercial aircraft movements handled despite an increase of 0.5% at Heathrow, which produced another monthly record of aircraft movements. Cargo volumes were impacted by disruption experienced amongst cargo operators, which contributed to a 7.5% decline in cargo tonnage passing through BAA airports during October.
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