UK. February traffic figures at BAA’s seven UK airports announced today are broadly in line with analysts’ expectations.
February is traditionally a slow month for BAA after the peak holiday period (January this year was particularly good). The group handled a total of 8.7 million passengers in the month, an increase of +6.3% against the some month last year.
Stansted recorded a +24.2% increase, with over 16.5 million passengers handled by the airport in the last 12 months. Glasgow experienced a +13.6% increase and Edinburgh grew by +12.0%.
Heathrow grew by +1.4% and Gatwick, which continues to benefit from growth in domestic and European services, reported gains of +5.9%. Southampton added +2.2% and Aberdeen grew by +2.0%.
In the individual markets, domestic travel grew by +12.7%, whilst scheduled and charter traffic on European routes saw increases of +8.6% and +4.7% respectively. There was growth of +1.0% on North Atlantic routes whilst other long haul services were up +0.6%.
The figures were in line with WestLB Panmure’s expectations. “It’s a neutral figure. February is not a very strong month typically” analyst Andrew Murphy told Dow Jones. He said BAA offers good long-term investment value.
