Airport passengers at record high

Major airports in the United Kingdom handled a record number of passengers last month, despite the British Airways' cabin crew strike, it was announced yesterday.

A total of 10.2m passengers passed through the seven airports run by the airport operator BAA in July 1997. This was an increase of 6 per cent on July 1996 and the highest monthly figure ever, BAA said.

The figure could have been even higher as BAA reckoned the three-day BA strike lost around 200,000 passengers.

The European charter market had the biggest growth last month - increasing 12.3 per cent and helping to boost Gatwick airport passenger numbers by 12.4 per cent.