05 May 2009

Slump in passenger numbers at Gatwick and Stansted

Passenger numbers at BAA airports fell 10% in the first three months of 2009.

According to the companyÃ¢â¬â¢s first quarter figures, Gatwick and Stansted saw numbers drop by 14.6% over 2008.

Heathrow was more resilient, with numbers down 6.4%.

BAAÃ¢â¬â¢s pre-tax losses grew to Ã&#pound;316.2 million from a loss of Ã&#pound;55.6 million in the same period last year, while revenues rose 15.5%.

The group partly blamed depreciation in value of Terminal 5 for the losses.

The poor performance was also blamed on the recession, heavy snow in early February and the absence of Easter in the first three months this year.

BAA said the long-haul market continued to perform better than the overall market, with reported long-haul traffic down 8% to 9.4 million passengers.

Reported European passenger traffic declined 10.9% to 13 million with weakness in both scheduled and charter markets.

Domestic traffic continued the recent trend of being the weakest
traffic segment, declining 12.6% to 2.4 million passengers.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said the results were in line with expectations Ã¢â¬Åâœin the most difficult economic circumstancesÃ¢â¬~.

"The rest of the year will be difficult and will present more challenges but our focus remains on raising service standards and maximising efficiency," he added.

BAA said it would be making an announcement with regards to the sale of Gatwick in the next few weeks.

Reports in the weekendÃ¢â¬â¢s business press said three rival bidders for Gatwick have offered around Ã&#pound;1.4 billion.

BAA owner, Ferrovial, had hoped to get Ã&#pound;2 billion for the airport.

By Bev Fearis

Post your comment

Your Comments (1)

O'Dear leary

What a full weight prat! Someone asked me where I was flying from for my last trip, I said Manchester and the reply was, 'will it hurt your arms?!?!' not as much as it would hurt my pride travelling on Ryanair bucket.

By Tony Jolley, Wednesday, May 6, 2009