Growth slows but passenger numbers hit record levels
The rate of growth at BAA’s UK airports slowed last month following the London bomb attacks but passenger numbers still hit record levels, latest figures have revealed.
BAA’s seven airports handled almost 14.6 million passengers in July, a 2.6% increase on the same month last year. It compares to a growth in June of 4.3%.
North Atlantic traffic increased 1%, other long haul grew 7.5%, Irish traffic by 8%, European scheduled by 3.8% and domestic by 1.4%. Only the European charter market suffered, showing a drop of 5.5%.
The biggest growth came at Southampton where 195,000 people travelled through the terminal, almost 31% more than last year.
But the three London airports, while showing overall growth of 1.7% to 12.2 million, were impacted by the terrorist attacks, according to BAA.
Passengers at Stansted rose 6.1% to 2.17 million, Gatwick increased 3.3% to 3.5 million while Heathrow, which also suffered capacity restraints, fell 0.6% to 6.4 million.
At BAA’s three Scottish airports, numbers rose 5.8% to 2.17 million with Aberdeen showing the strongest year on year growth of 8.1% to 276,000.
Edinburgh welcomed 845,000, 6.2% more than July 2004, while Glasgow handled 1.05 million, a 4.8% jump. An expanded range of low cost scheduled flights was largely responsible for the growth.
Report by Steve Jones
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 
Global tourism exceeds 1.5 billion travelers announces UN-Tourism
Qatar Airways offers reduced timetable to over 60 destinations
WTTC global tourism reached record economic impact of 11 trillion in 2025
Marginal increase for New York City tourism in 2025
Hands In, UATP join forces for airline multi-card payments