BAA Traffic Declines During May

BAA has reported an airport traffic decline of 7.3 % year on year during the month of May. Airport owner BAA currently operates seven British airports including Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Although BAA admits that demand is currently low, the results are said to be in line with trends since December.

London Gatwick which is currently up for sale, experienced a 6.5% decline in traffic, whilst Heathrow, which is BAA and Britain’s busiest airport reported a smaller drop of 3.9%. However the worst performing airport was Stansted which experienced an 18.5% decline in traffic which has been attributed to capacity cuts from financially hit carriers.

Further north, Glasgow and Aberdeen recorded falls of 11.7% and 14.1% respectively. Edinburgh, helped by a range of new low cost flights was the only BAA airport to record an increase with a rise of 1.4%. The Competition Commission has recently instructed BAA to sell both Gatwick and Stansted airports in addition to Edinburgh or Glasgow.