A strike at London's Heathrow airport robbed British airports operator BAA of its busiest month ever, slowing July passenger growth at the country's biggest airport owner to 2.2% at its seven British airports.
'In the absence of strike action, it is estimated that BAA would have recorded an increase of 3% and seen its busiest month ever,' BAA said in a statement on Monday.
BAA handled 13.2 million passengers in July, its second busiest month.
The walk out by check-in staff at British Airways for 24 hours last month forced Europe's biggest airline to scrap more than 500 flights. The strike was estimated to have caused a net loss of 100,000 passengers at Heathrow, said BAA.
BAA said the recent gradual recovery in North Atlantic traffic, a key market for British Airways to attract lucrative business travellers, was set back slightly by the strike. It had a 2.9% decline in July, said BAA.
'Other long haul routes saw a recovery from the SARS and Iraqi War impacts, with a collective increase of 1.9%, the first monthly gain since February,' BAA said.
But passenger numbers between BAA airports and the Republic of Ireland dropped 3% compared with July 2002.
