November traffic figures – BAA’s airports

BAA’s airports served a total of 7.8 million passengers in November; a drop of 0.9% compared with the same month last year. The comparison with last year is complicated by weather related disruptions in both years and the UKBA strike on 30 November 2011. Adjusting for these factors, traffic is estimated to have declined 1.6% across the group.

Heathrow handled 5.2 million passengers in November, a drop of 0.5% on the same month last year. There was an estimated reduction in passenger numbers of 50,000 after airlines reduced load factors in preparation for the UKBA strike. Adjusting for this and for weather-related losses both this year and last year, the underlying decline at Heathrow improves to 0.2%. The North Atlantic market saw continued growth, with a 3.8% increase in passengers, supported by an increased number of flights. In contrast, domestic passenger numbers continue to decline, by 12.3% in November, as a result of reduced flights. This sustained domestic decline reflects the UK regions being progressively cut off from the UK’s only hub airport by a lack of capacity at Heathrow.

BAA’s Scottish airports’ passenger figures were boosted by better weather this November compared with 2010. Growth in European scheduled traffic of 10.8% more than offset the decline in traffic to Heathrow. Traffic to the European hubs of Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris continued to see particular growth, with passengers increasingly having to now connect through an overseas country to make their journey. Edinburgh reported a 3.2% increase in passengers overall, with gains of 5.4% in European scheduled traffic and 9.1% on North Atlantic services. Aberdeen’s recent strong performance continued with an increase in passenger numbers of 16.1%. The recent runway extension is enabling new routes and a new service to Frankfurt is helping to drive growth of 21.6% in European scheduled traffic.

Stansted recorded a 7.5% drop in passengers overall this month compared with last year driven by a reduction in the number of seats offered by airlines on domestic and European scheduled routes.

In total, BAA’s airports handled 0.4% more air transport movements than November 2010, despite Heathrow recording a drop of 0.2%. The trend of weakening results continued in the air freight sector with tonnage at Heathrow down by 4.1% and at group level by 3.7%.

BAA Chief Executive, Colin Matthews, said:

“Faced with the prospect of long immigration queues at Heathrow on November 30th, we were pleased that airlines, UKBA, and the UK’s hub airport worked effectively in collaboration to avoid disruption to passengers.”

Download BAA traffic statistics November 2011 >>