Royal wedding helps traffic stats at BAA
BAA, the Spanish operator of six British airports, yesterday said passenger traffic jumped 9.2 per cent last month compared to a year earlier.
It said the late Easter holidays and royal wedding celebrations had led to more passengers travelling at the beginning of the month. The second Icelandic ash cloud only had a marginal effect, it added.
BAA said 9.3m passengers took flights from its UK airports in May. Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport and BAA’s biggest, served 5.9m passengers, an 11.6 per cent increase on May 2010, which was badly affected by volcanic ash and strikes.
BAA also confirmed that Heathrow’s chief operating officer Nick Cullen, who came under fire during last year’s snow storms, resigned from the firm last week. A replacement has not yet been found.