UK. BAA’s five airports handled 9.6 million passengers in July, down by -4.1% on July 2011. This included a drop of -4.4% at Heathrow to 6.6 million passengers.
The drop was more pronounced in the second half of the month and it is likely that the Olympics played a part, said BAA, with UK passengers staying at home as well as non-Olympic visitors from overseas choosing to defer their journeys.
Within the Heathrow figures, domestic traffic saw an increase of +1.2% compared with last year, while European scheduled traffic, significantly affected by the Olympics, fell -6.6%. North Atlantic traffic remained almost unchanged (+0.1%), and other long haul routes had a collective decline of -6.3%. Within that passenger numbers to and from India dropped -11% but Brazil saw an increase of +15% and China +3.4%.
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BAA also noted a strong set of results for customer satisfaction at Heathrow during the month. The airport’s monthly survey asks passengers to rate their experience on a scale of 1-5, where 5 is excellent and 4 very good. In July, arrivals scored a record 4.3. Departures scored 4.22, the second highest departures score ever and a record for July, said the company.
At Stansted passenger numbers were down -5.3% compared with July 2011, while Glasgow saw numbers fall -0.5% and Southampton -9.5%. Aberdeen though saw an increase in passenger numbers of +4.4% compared with July 2011, which meant a combined increase of +0.9% across the Scottish airports.
BAA Chief Executive Colin Matthews said: “We are proud to have played our part in giving the very best welcome to London 2012 to athletes and visitors alike. Seven years of hard work and planning, the warmth and enthusiasm of more than a thousand volunteers and additional Border Force staff produced our strongest ever passenger satisfaction scores.”
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