BAA says passengers are returning
BAA’s latest figures show passengers are returning, with budget airlines pushing the growth.
The airline operator’s March figures show that its seven UK airports handled 10.1 million passengers, a 3.4% improvement on March, 2001.
BAA said that figures were buoyed by an earlier Easter than last year. Across the group, there were rises of +17.9% on Irish routes, +14.7% on European charter routes, +4.4% in domestic traffic and +3.3% in the European scheduled market.
In the long haul sector, North Atlantic routes made further improvements with a fall of -5.4%, compared to -7.7% in February and -10.1% in January, whilst other long haul routes recorded a collective gain for the first time since July 2001, of +1.7%.
Heathrow reported its first monthly increase (+2.2%) since February 2001. BAA said that underpinned by competition from low cost scheduled carriers, Edinburgh (+21.9%), Stansted (+17.2%) and Glasgow (+7.9%) each experienced strong growth. According to BAA, Stansted is “one of the fastest-growing major airports in Europe”.
Traffic at Gatwick decreased -3.3%, which represents an improvement against January and February, when traffic for the months fell -16.4% and-10.8% respectively.
For BAA’s financial year ended March 2001/02, its seven UK airports handled 121.9 million passengers, a decrease of -2.2% over the previous year, which BAA blamed on Foot and Mouth disease, the general global economic slowdown and the events of September 11.
BAA said that continued growth amongst low cost scheduled carriers also helped Glasgow to 7.3 million passengers per annum for the first time. Edinburgh added 11.6% traffic growing to 6.3 million passengers for the year and Aberdeen added 1.5% to 2.6 million passengers for the year. BAA said that Foot and mouth disease and September 11 impacted traffic through Heathrow and Gatwick, with drops of -6.1% and -5.1% respectively. Southampton recorded a fall of -3.0% for the year.
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Turkish tourism stalls due to soaring prices for accommodation and food
CCS Insight: eSIMs ready to take the travel world by storm
Germany new European Entry/Exit System limited to a single airport on October 12, 2025
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt
Qatar Airways offers flexible payment options for European travellers