Drop in Passenger Numbers at BAA’s Seven UK Airports in October 2008

BAA’s seven UK airports handled a total of 12.4 million passengers in October 2008, a drop of 6% over the same period last year. Year to date, BAA´s UK airport traffic shows a decline of 1.9% for the ten months to October at a total of 125.8 million.

Of the key markets, European charter recorded the highest percentage drop (-15.7%) while North Atlantic, Domestic, European scheduled and other long haul were down 7.1%, 6.3%, 5.1% and 4.3% respectively.

On an individual airport level, Heathrow was down 3.7% although its North Atlantic traffic continued to do well (up 7.4%). Gatwick’s positive results on the Irish routes (up 27.3%) and European scheduled (up 3.5%) partly offset the 41.6% drop in North Atlantic traffic (mainly due to the introduction of the ‘Open Skies’ agreement), the airport overall declined 10.3%. Stansted was down by 6.3% and Southampton by 7.4%.

Overall the Scottish airports posted a drop of 6.1%, Glasgow fell by 9.1%, Aberdeen by 5.3% and Edinburgh by 3.2%.

In total the group handled 4.2% fewer air transport movements in October. Cargo tonnage was down 2.5% despite increases of 4.2%, 3.3% and 26.8% respectively at Heathrow, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Promotions, New Hotels, BAA, Airports, October 2008, Traffic, Visitor Arrivals