BAA passenger numbers up as Heathrow booms
TRAFFIC at airports operated by BAA rose last month, with Heathrow enjoying its busiest December ever in terms of both passenger numbers and cargo.
BAA, which is Britain’s main airport operator and majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial said yesterday that its airports carried just under 8.1m passengers in December.
That is an annual increase of 0.6 per cent once adjusted to exclude the impact of exceptional events such as heavy snow in late 2010. Heathrow, Europe’s busiest hub, reported an underlying increase in December passenger numbers of 2.8 per cent, which was the strongest rate since June 2011.
Cargo volumes grew for the first time since February 2011 on an underlying basis.
BAA chief executive Colin Matthews renewed calls to expand capacity at Heathrow. “Capacity constraints are damaging the UK economy today when the country can least afford it,” he said.