A RECORD number of passengers used BAA airports last year.
The airport operator said 133.4 million passengers passed through its seven sites, six million more than last year.
Among individual airports, Heathrow experienced a 2.1 per cent improvement as the airport benefited from a rise in demand for North Atlantic travel. Volumes at Gatwick grew 1.4 per cent despite a 17.6 per cent decline in charter traffic.
Stansted continued to experience strong growth as its year-on-year passenger numbers showed a 15.9 per cent improvement. The growth in low-cost travel also benefited Southampton, with a rise of 72.8 per cent, while Glasgow (3.1 per cent) and Edinburgh (7.2 per cent) airports performed solidly.
Aberdeen was the only airport to experience a year-on-year decline as the downturn in the oil industry caused annual figures to fall 1.6 per cent.
As well as the recovery in North Atlantic travel, BAA saw long-haul routes carry 20 per cent more passengers, with European scheduled traffic ahead 12.6 per cent.
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