Passenger numbers rise but charter market slumps again
The number of passengers travelling through BAA’s UK airports in June rose to 13.4 million, a 4.3% increase on June 2004, latest figures have revealed.
But the number travelling on European charters again slumped, this time by almost 6%.
BAA said numbers at Heathrow rose just over 1% to 6 million, at Gatwick by 4.6% to 3.2 million and at Stansted by 9.2% to 2.01 million.
A growth in long haul traffic at Heathrow has been offset by a “contraction in short haul services caused by the growing popularity of low cost carriers,” BAA said.
The biggest growth came at Southampton where the airport welcomed 181,000, an increase over last June of almost 32%.
At BAA’s three Scottish airports, passenger numbers rose 7.1% to 1.93 million with Edinburgh showing the strongest year on year performance with 9.6% more passengers. Glasgow rose 4.3% and Aberdeen by 9.3%.
In a statement, the airport authority said long haul travel grew 11.1% largely due to an increase in traffic on Indian services and routes to and from China. European scheduled markets grew 5.7% and North Atlantic by 0.7%.
UK domestic traffic rose 4% but the European charter market again suffered.
“The market was again subdued, falling 5.9%,” BAA said.
Report by Steve Jones
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