Airports operator BAA achieved a record August with overall passenger numbers up by 0.2% over the same month last year to 10.7 million .
Heathrow led the way by handling 6.6 million passengers, up 0.7% year on year. The North Atlantic was the strongest performing market for the London hub, with 71,000 more passengers than in August last year.
Montreal saw passenger numbers rise 50% while those flying to and from Detroit were up by 41.9%. BAA estimates that around 40,000 additional passengers would have travelled through Heathrow had it not been for the impact of Hurricane Irene in the US.
Airlines cutting capacity resulted in a 5.5% drop in domestic traffic, with numbers down by 13.2% at Heathrow. Other long-haul traffic grew by 0.6% and European scheduled numbers were up by 0.3%.
Stansted, expected to be sold by BAA along with one of its Scottish airports following recommendation by the Competition Commission, was alone in recording a drop in traffic of 5.1% as a result of cutbacks in airline capacity.
BAA’s Scottish airports achieved a 3% rise in passengers, making August the sixth consecutive record month for Edinburgh. Passenger numbers grew by 5.5% at Glasgow and 6.7% at Aberdeen respectively.
Southampton saw a 2.4% rise in passengers to 188,000. Overall air transport movements across the six airports fell by 0.2%. BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: “Together with our airline customers, we served a record number of passengers this summer.
“Our passengers tell us we are delivering a better service for them and we are investing £1 billion a year in new passenger facilities.”