Report by Louise Longman
BAA’s seven UK airports saw an 11.2% increase in passenger
numbers to 8.8 million last month, due to rail service disruption and a
recovery in passengers who did not travel in 1999 due to concerns about the
Millennium date change.
BAA saw domestic traffic rise 14.3% in December due to the
continued rail service disruption, giving a total of 150,000 more passenger
movements, with over a quarter of whom travelled through Stansted.
Stansted and Southampton were the fastest growing airports
for December, with Stansted up 31.1% and Southampton showing an increase of
16.5%.
Gatwick saw a 12.8% increase in passenger numbers, with
Heathrow growing by 7.5%. The Scottish airports; Glasgow, Aberdeen and
Edinburgh, recorded a collective increase of 10.8% despite bad weather over the
Christmas period.
European charter traffic for the seven airports grew last
month by 12.4%, long haul (other than North Atlantic) rose by 15.5% and European
scheduled services rose by 9.9%.
The most buoyant market sector for the year remained European
scheduled traffic, accounting for 44.7 million passengers across the group.