UK. BAA’s six airports handled almost 9.1 million passengers in April, a surge of +31.1% on the same month last year. Heathrow (with 5.8 million passengers) and Edinburgh (776,000) had their busiest-ever April traffic levels, with volumes rising by +31.5% and +43.9% respectively.
The group’s other airports also posted healthy growth, with Stansted traffic climbing by +26.2% (to 1.5 million), Southampton up +18.5% (to 143,700), Glasgow up +27.1% (to 512,700) and Aberdeen posting a rise of +33.2% to 247,000.
BAA noted that the underlying trend was affected by the severe disruption in April 2010 caused by the ash cloud over European airspace and by the Easter holidays falling entirely in April this year (against March in 2010).
“A more reliable interpretation of the year to date will be possible after the end of May when the full effects of the later holiday can be better assessed,” said BAA.
For the first four months of 2011 BAA airports have handled 31.9 million passengers, up by +8.5% year-on-year.
In its business commentary BAA said: “In addition to welcoming more passengers than in any previous April, Heathrow’s punctuality was at its highest ever, equalling the record previously set in October 2009. Over the Easter holiday season Heathrow brought in more multilingual customer service agents, set up dedicated family security lanes, opened a play area and established a pre-ordering service for baby milk and food to help families have smoother journeys.”
BAA Chief Executive Colin Matthews said: “I am delighted that more passengers departed on time from Heathrow than ever before. These figures reflect the results of our £1 billion annual investment and the commitment of 77,000 staff from 320 companies who work at the airport to improve the experience of our passengers.”
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