Bombings affect July air traffic at London airports |
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Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:05
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LONDON: The UK's largest airport operator, BAA Plc., has recorded a marginal 2.6 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in July but admitted the London bombings had indeed affected business volumes. It said passenger traffic went down at Heathrow while at Gatwick and Stansted, where low-fare airlines operate, there has been an increase.
BAA said in a statement that "The rate of growth at BAA's London airports was impacted by the London bombings. In addition, capacity constraints in this peak months reduced the ability of Heathrow to accommodate true demand growth." It said it handled 14.6 million passengers in July at seven airports and while volumes increased year on year, the growth rate was lower than in recent months.
Passenger numbers on U.K. flights went up by 1.4 per cent, compared with a 4 per cent gain in June and a 5.7 per cent rise in May. North Atlantic traffic increased by 1 per cent and on other long-haul routes it grew by 7.5 per cent. Traffic to Irish destinations rose by and European traffic added 3.8 per cent.
Heathrow traffic by itself declined by 0.6 per cent (There were 6.5 million passengers), BAA said, while at Gatwick there has been a rise of 3.3 per cent (There were 3.6 million passengers) and at Stansted 6.1 per cent (There were 2.2 million passengers).
The company has projected a traffic growth of 3.5 per cent at its London airports for the year ending March 2006.
British Airways had admitted there was some short-term impact of the bombings, but it was immaterial. Even the budget airline Ryanair said bookings were down in July.
BAA is adding a fifth terminal at Heathrow at a cost of 4.2 billion pounds, while a second runway is being built at Stansted.
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