BAA reports UK Airport Traffic for August 2008

BAA’s UK airports handled a total of 14.9 million passengers in August 2008, a drop of 1.7% on the same month last year.

Year to date BAA´s UK airports traffic shows a decline of 0.8%. The trend in figures year to date is driven by a decline in Domestic traffic (-5%) versus an increase in the most profitable long haul traffic (+1%) and virtual stagnation of European flights (-0.5%).

The pattern of August traffic between key markets also followed the recently established trend with a increase in North Atlantic long haul traffic (+1.3%) versus stagnation in European activity (-1%) and in Domestic traffic (-6.5%).

Traffic at Heathrow, BAA´s largest airport, remains unchanged, with a drop of just 0.2% helped by a 15.6% increase in North Atlantic traffic as a result of Open Skies.

Gatwick fell by 1.2%, where a 13.7% gain in European scheduled traffic was not enough to offset the 29.3% drop in North Atlantic traffic due to the shift of long haul traffic to Heathrow in the wake of Open Skies.

Stansted recorded a drop of 4.7%. In Scotland, Edinburgh was just 1% lower, but Glasgow and Aberdeen dropped by 5.2% and 5.4% respectively.

Cargo tonnage was up overall by 1%, with Heathrow recording an increase of 9.8%. In total BAA Group airports handled 3% fewer air transport movements in August.

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