9pc fall in air passenger numbers

Airports operator BAA today said combined passenger numbers for its seven UK airports plunged almost 9 per cent last month.

BAA, which runs London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports as well as Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Southampton, said reduced winter schedules and the closure of Bangkok's international airport affected the figures.

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A total of 9.8 million people passed through its airports in the month, down 8.9 per cent on last year. It took the decline in airport traffic for the 11 months to November to 2.4 per cent.

BAA said the closure of Bangkok's international airport by anti government protesters had caused long haul services to be cancelled at the end of the month. A strike by Air France workers also resulted in cancellations.

Heathrow passenger numbers were down 4.8 per cent on a year earlier, while Gatwick was 13.5 per cent lower, Stansted was down by 13.2 per cent and Glasgow was off 15.6 per cent.

BAA, which is owned by Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial, said all key markets were affected by the slowdown as European charter traffic fell 17 per cent in its normally quiet period and domestic travel was down 12.7 per cent.

Heathrow's resilience was partly down to its greater share of the long-haul market, which saw a relatively small fall of 3.1 per cent across all BAA's airports.

The company said additional US flights from Heathrow as part of the Open Skies agreement, which eased restrictions on air travel between the EU and US, had also contributed to a comparatively good performance.

Conversely, BAA said Gatwick suffered from the negative impact of Open Skies as passengers flew from alternative airports.

Both Gatwick and Stansted were hit by the impact of airline service cutbacks, BAA said.