BAA’s UK airports handled 15 million passengers in July, the most passengers to pass through their airports in a single month and an increase of 3.1% over the same month last year. Of the major markets, European scheduled traffic was up 7.4%, whilst North Atlantic activity was up 0.2%, and other long haul routes increased by a collective 8.4%.

Among these the fastest growing market was India, which grew 50%. UK Domestic traffic fell by 1.9% in response to a drop in seat capacity on Domestic routes, whilst European Charter dropped 5.9%.

Of the individual airports, Stansted saw the largest gain at 9.9%. Heathrow and Gatwick grew 1.2%, and 4.1% respectively. In Scotland, Aberdeen recorded an increase of 6.6%.

Edinburgh was up 2.0%, buoyed by an increase in North American traffic following the introduction of new scheduled services.

A drop in it’s large charter traffic component, and additional competition from Edinburgh for US traffic, contributed to a 1.8% fall in Glasgow’s traffic.

In total the number of air transport movements at BAA’s UK airports rose by 0.7% while cargo tonnage was down by 2.1%.
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