UK. BAA’s seven UK airports handled a total of 12.4 million passengers in April, an increase of +7.8% year-on-year.
March and April results combined – a necessary equation to eliminate the impact of Easter falling later in 2006 – show a +3.2% rise over the same two months last year.
All major markets, with the exception of UK domestic routes (down -1.3%), recorded strong growth. European scheduled passenger traffic was up +10.8% and European charters, gaining most from the later Easter holiday, were +4.2% ahead. North Atlantic numbers rose +4.8% year-on-year while there was a collective increase of +15.0% on other long haul routes.
Of the individual airports, Stansted posted the largest gain at +16.2%. Gatwick rose +12.5% while Aberdeen recorded its fifth successive double-digit increase at +10%. Southampton was up +10.5%. Heathrow’s traffic rose +4.3% to 5.8 million. Increases at Glasgow and Edinburgh were more modest at +2.2% and +1.7% respectively.
Abroad, and also helped by the late Easter, Naples posted passenger volume growth of +14.9%.
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