Weak charter results reported by BAA
The number of passengers taking European charter flights from BAA airports was down in May.
The airports operator, reporting May traffic figures, said charter passenger dropped 13% year on year.
This decline was offset by improved scheduled airline passenger growth across the group’s seven airports.
Overall passenger numbers were up 7.8% in May to 11.7 million against 11.4 million in May 2003. The increase was fuelled by a rise in long haul travel and a recovery in traffic from London Heathrow.
BAA said: “Heathrow recovered well from its depressed figures a year ago. At all other BAA airports, strong scheduled traffic growth was more than sufficient to offset weak charter results.”
Numbers on Norh Atlantic routes were up by more than 18% while long haul routes showed overall growth of almost 25% against the same period last year when growth was depressed by the SARS outbreak.
Passenger numbers were up 2.9% at Gatwick and 6.8% at Stansted during May.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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