BAA report drop in passenger numbers
BAA has blamed the late Easter for a 1.3% dip in passenger numbers in March.
For the financial year to the end of March, its seven UK airports handled 144.6 million, a 2% increase over 2004/05.
The charter market suffered the most last month with a 15.4% fall while domestic traffic fell 2.9% and North Atlantic by 2.8%.
Only non-Atlantic long haul showed growth, of 4.6%.
For the year, charter volumes fell 10.2% with domestic and European schedule growing 1.3% and 3.4% respectively.
Heathrow’s 3.8% drop in March contributed to a 12-month decrease of 0.3% to 67.4 million. BAA said the softer UK economy, London bombings, high fuel costs and Gate Gourmet dispute all had an affect.
Gatwick had its best year on record with 32.8m passengers, up 2.6%, despite a fall last month of 0.3%.
Stansted welcomed 22.2m passengers, up 5% on the year and 1.3% ahead in March.
The biggest winner during the 2005/06 was Southampton which saw 1.8m travel through its terminal, up 20.1%. Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh grew 9.5%, 2.4% and 5.6% respectively.
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