UK airport traffic overcomes September 11 impact
BAA recorded higher passengers numbers for 2002 than 2000, effectively overcoming the detrimental impact that 11 September had on air travel.
The UK airports operator announced today that it’s airports handled 126.6 million passengers in 2002, up 3.9 percent on 2001, and up 2.3 percent on 2000 figures.
Passenger numbers were 15.3 percent higher year-on-year in December 2002, to 9.4 million, buoyed by travel over the festive period. BAA first announced a return to 2000 levels in September, when monthly passenger traffic in the UK reached 12.1 million.
The prolific rise of no-frills carriers undoubtedly played a part in ensuring Stansted recorded most growth year-on-year, with passenger numbers up 17.5 percent from 2001, and 35.3 percent from 2000.
Heathrow and Gatwick reported less significant growth, and were still down on 2000 figures. Heathrow handled 4.3 percent more passengers in 2002 than in 2001, but was two percent down on 2000. Gatwick was down 5.1 percent on 2001, and down 7.6 percent on 2000.
Heathrow and Gatwick suffered from a decline in transatlantic travel. BAA recorded a year-on-year decrease of 0.7 percent in travel on North Atlantic routes in 2002 to 17.8 million, down 11.5 percent from 2000. However, passenger numbers picked up in December 2002, with both North Atlantic and European schedule routes up 18 percent on the same month in 2001.
Read our previous stories:
11-Dec-2002 UK airport festive strikes off
10-Dec-02 UK airport delays this weekend: Updated
02-Dec-2002 Higher airport charges could mean higher fares
27-Nov-02 UK airport staff halt strikes
11-Oct-2002 UK airport traffic returns to 2000 levels
04-Oct-2002 Gatwick optimistic despite BA shifting more flights to Heathrow
13-Sept-2002 BAA reports late summer surge
16-August-2002 Air Travel on the mend
7-June-2002 BAA performs well in tough times
10-May-2002 BAA sees April traffic figures fall
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