No-frills airlines help boost UK passenger numbers

No-frills airlines adding to their roster of destinations helped the seven UK airports run by BAA to handle 5% more passengers in May.

BAA said a total of 12.3 million travellers passed through its airports last month, with the fastest growth taking place at Southampton after regional carrier Flybe beefed up its presence there.

The expansion by Flybe, which this week placed an order for up to 26 new planes after agreeing a deal with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer, meant passenger numbers at Southampton were 30.4% higher than a year ago.

At the same time, Gatwick benefited from new low-cost services to Ireland as it handled 2.8 million passengers – up 4.9% on a year ago.

The BAA figures came as the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said the popularity of budget airlines meant it handled a record number of flights in May.

NATS handled 205,378 flights last month – up 7.3% on a year ago – and said all 14 of the UK airports where it controls air traffic reported increases.

Paul Barron, chief executive of NATS, said: “Flights by budget carriers and services using regional airports showed particularly strong growth.”

Today’s figures from BAA showed that Stansted recorded a rise of 10.7% on a year earlier, while Heathrow bounced back from a decline in passenger numbers in April to rise by 2% to 5.6 million last month.

Edinburgh enjoyed the fastest growth among its airports in Scotland after a new daily service to the United States was launched.

BAA’s airport serving the Scottish capital handled 749,600 passengers – up 12.3% on a year earlier –

while Aberdeen saw growth of 10.9% and Glasgow was up by 2.6%.

The short-haul charter market proved to be the weakest sector during the month, with 8.6% fewer passenger movements.

European scheduled traffic was up 7.4% and North Atlantic traffic increased by 2.3%, while other long-haul routes continued their recent strong trend with growth of 8.1%. Domestic services attracted 5.7% more passengers.

Today’s figures represent continued growth for BAA, which in common with other aviation industry players has been recovering from the setbacks of Sars, the Iraq war and terrorism in previous years.

In January, the group reported an 18.1% rise in profits to £521m (€777.4m) in the nine months to December 31, with chief executive Mike Clasper highlighting achievements including a pay settlement with unions and the completion of more than half of Terminal Five at Heathrow.