Booming no-frills airlines helped British airports operator BAA to a 10.7% rise in passengers through its gates in January.
The owner of the world's busiest international hub, London's Heathrow airport, said today that its airports handled 8.8 million passengers in January thanks to strong traffic over the Christmas and new year holiday period.
'The largest gains were recorded at airports with the highest concentration of low cost carriers,' BAA said in a statement, referring to London's Stansted, a major base for budget carriers Ryanair and easyJet, and Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland.
Despite strong growth on the North Atlantic market in January on the same month a year ago, the number of passengers on the transatlantic routes has still not recovered to levels prior to the hijacked airline attacks on the US 17 months ago.
'North Atlantic routes increased by 9%, but have not recovered to levels recorded prior to September 11, 2001,' BAA said. 'The two year comparison shows the North Atlantic market to be still 2% down.'
The September 11 attacks on the US accelerated an airline industry downturn that began as economic growth slowed. The slump has hit British Airways, Europe's biggest carrier, particularly hard on its important North American routes as companies keep a lid on travel expenses.
Not as sensitive to economic cycles as airlines, BAA draws its income from airline take-off and landing fees, car parks, retail rent, airport advertising and its duty-free shops.
