British airports operator BAA has announced a 7.8% rise in passenger numbers in May from the same time a year ago, helped by a recovery at London's Heathrow airport.
BAA, owner of seven British airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, handled 11.7 million air travellers last month.
Passenger numbers at the seven airports had risen by 15% in April from a year earlier, 10.4% in March and 8.9% in February. Air traffic had been considerably affected during the first half of 2003 because of the Iraq war and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Asia.
'Heathrow recovered well from its depressed figures of a year ago with a 12.4% increase in May, taking its total over the last 12 months past the 65 million passenger mark for the first time,' BAA said in a statement.
North Atlantic traffic rose by 18.1% in May from the same period of the previous year. Long-haul routes, excluding traffic across the North Atlantic, rose by 24.6%. European scheduled traffic climbed 10%, BAA said.
