11.03.10
Clear runways due to an improvement in the weather saw UK airports operator BAA post its first rise in domestic passengers in 2 years last month. It handled a total of 7.13m passengers in the course of the month, up by 2.4 percent from February last year (which saw passenger numbers stricken by heavy snow throughout the UK), with domestic passengers up by 1.1 percent.
At Heathrow, passengers were up by 5.3 percent as it was largely free of snow and remains more resilient than other UK airports. The underlying figure - adjusted to take account of the weather issues last year was a passenger upsurge of 2.7 percent.
Southampton traffic growth was also helped by an improvement in the weather, with passenger numbers climbing by 5.9 percent, while growth of 3.5 percent at Edinburgh was helped by an improvement in the weather and Six Nations rugby-related traffic. However, at Stansted (down 4.5 percent), Glasgow (down 5.0 percent) and Aberdeen (down 4.6 percent) airports saw falls in traffic, indicating continuing problems for the industry.
For the very first time in two years, domestic traffic across BAA's UK airports was up, by 1.1 percent. European scheduled connections recorded a 2.6 percent increase and North Atlantic traffic was up by 2.7 percent in spite of a number of periods of heavy snow in the Mid-West and North Eastern parts of the US. Remaining long haul traffic rose by 4.0 percent overall with strong contributions from services to China (up 6.8 percent), the Middle East (up 11.1 percent) and South America (up 17.6 percent).
In total the Group recorded a drop of 0.2 percent in the number of air transport movements (Heathrow up 2.1 percent) and a rise of 23.2 percent in the tonnage of cargo handled. This latter result represents the third consecutive month of double-digit increases in cargo and directly matches experience of the worldwide air-freight industry.
In the 12 months to the end of February BAA UK airport passengers were down 3.1 percent (106.8m) in comparison with the previous 12 months. Heathrow passengers were down 0.4 percent (to 66.1m), Stansted down 9.6 percent (19.8m) and Southampton down 6.4 percent (1.8m). In Scotland passengers were up 1.6 percent at Edinburgh (9.0m), however down 10.5 percent (7.1m) at Glasgow and 9.0 percent at Aberdeen (3.0m).
BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: ‘Heathrow remains resilient and other airports are starting to see hopeful signs. However traffic remains depressed, reflecting tough conditions in the economy generally and in aviation specifically.’
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