BAA highlights positive trend in passenger numbers

Airport operator BAA has released passenger numbers for January and stated that, while traffic decreased during the month as a result of the bad weather, there was an improvement in the overall trend.

At Heathrow Airport, there was a drop of 0.5 per cent in passenger figures compared to January 2009.

BAA said that the difficult weather led to the loss of 145,000 passengers, meaning traffic would have increased by around 2.5 per cent if conditions had been normal.

There were indications of an improvement on routes to the Middle East and South America regions from Heathrow, the operator revealed.

Chief executive Colin Matthews said: "There is no doubt that the market remains a difficult one and certainly the snow didn't help, but, equally, there are encouraging signs of growth, particularly on the routes out of Heathrow to the Middle East and South America."

He added: "This once again underlines Heathrow's role as the UK's only hub airport."

BAA's UK network, which also includes Stansted Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Glasgow Airport, handled a total of 7.2 million passengers in January.

Posted by Clare, 10 February 2010 16:23

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