BAA boosted by long-haul demand

British airports operator BAA said the recovery in market conditions continued last month after figures showed it handled 13 million passengers, a fall of 2.6% on last year.

The decline is similar to the performances in July and August and comes six months after traffic across its seven airports slumped by 11.3%.

Heathrow saw a marginal decrease of 0.3% to 5.8 million passengers in September, but a 5% fall in aircraft movements meant the load factor on planes rose to 78.2% from 73.9% a year earlier.

BAA said strong demand on long-haul routes to India and the Middle East drove the resilient performance.

Gatwick’s passenger numbers were down by 0.5% but this represented the airport’s best performance since May 2008 as domestic and European scheduled markets showed strong growth.

At Stansted, an 11% reduction in seat capacity following service withdrawals by low-cost carriers resulted in a decrease in passenger numbers of 11.8%.

Edinburgh airport’s numbers grew for the sixth successive month – by 3.8% – as a result of new low-cost scheduled European services. Glasgow declined by 8.9% and Aberdeen by 5.3% – both improved rates – while Southampton recorded a 4.6% drop.

BAA said today’s figures offered signs of encouragement for the industry.

It added: “In March this year, traffic across the UK airports was down 11.3%, so recent figures suggest that while underlying market conditions remain soft, there are some signs of a recovery.”

BAA is currently fighting a ruling by the Competition Commission that it must sell three of its airports – Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh. An appeal into the decision is due to begin on October 19.