BAA’s Problems Mounting as the Cold Tightens its Grip
Saturday, January 16, 2010 17:35
Gatwick and Heathrow operator BAA said it faced a challenging 2010 as it admitted the cold weather stopped 150000 passengers from flying into the run-up for Christmas after snow and fog wreaked havoc with departure schedules.
Analysts believe the figure for this month will be far higher, as the bad weather’s disruption has been far more severe and prolonged.
BAA’s chief executive Colin Matthews described 2009 as ‘a difficult year’. He warned that towards the end of the year, there are signals of improvements, particularly at Heathrow, but there are more challenging times ahead in 2010.
Despite the poor conditions, the number of people flying from BAA’s airports, which include Heathrow, Stansted and Glasgow, in December, slipped only 0.9% on the previous year to about eight million. At its flagship airport, Heathrow, passenger numbers actually increased. A surge in the number of European scheduled flights and long-haul flight to Asia, Africa and Australia saw 1.2% more people travelling through the airport this December compared to last one.
Across BAA’s airports, demand for long0haul routes was 3.5% higher than the same time last year, although traffic from the North Atlantic was 5.7% lower. But BAA, which is owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, admitted the recession had caused the number of passengers at its British airports last year to fall by more than 4% to 106.9 million, although the rate of decline slowed in the final three months, down 1.2% on 2008.
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