Airport owner BAA saw a rise in the number of passengers travelling through its airports in March, boosted by an earlier Easter this year.
The number of passengers rose 4% to 8.6m at its six UK airports, with Heathrow being particularly busy; Heathrow's numbers leapt by 6.9% to 5.7m, meaning the airport saw more than 70m passengers over a twelve month period for the first time.
BAA Chief Executive, Colin Matthews, said: "Reaching 70m passengers at Heathrow is a major milestone, demonstrating the resilience of the airport in an otherwise challenging economic environment. Increases in load factors drove this; however Heathrow continues to operate at 99.2% capacity - placing constraints on airlines' ability to introduce new flights to the emerging economies which are so vital to UK economic growth."
Try 6 free issues of MoneyWeek today
Get unparalleled financial insight, analysis and expert opinion you can profit from.
Start your trial
Sign up for MoneyWeek’s free twice-daily newsletter.
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
BAA is petitioning for a third runway to be built at Heathrow, but the government has ruled this out as an option.
Latest Videos FromMoneyWeek
Year-on-year, cargo levels at the flagship London airport were almost identical, and slightly higher at 0.1% across the group, while Heathrow's load factor rose 4.2 percentage points to 73.4% during March, compared to the same month in 2011.
While passenger numbers were down at Stansted, Edinburgh and Southampton, by 4.7%, 2.8% and 1.7% respectively, Glasgow airport was up 4.6%, and Aberdeen leapt 10.2%.
The firm's largest market, European scheduled traffic, gained 3.2%, due in part to a strong ski season. Passengers on North Atlantic routes rose 13.6%, with other long haul traffic up 5.2%.
The company also reported a 62.3% year-on-year jump in traffic between the UK and Brazil during March.
BAA is majority-owned by Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial.
NR
