More passengers through BAA hubs in October

BAA has revealed that it saw a year-on-year increase in passenger numbers in October.

Airports operator BAA has announced that its UK hubs handled a total of 13.2 million passengers in October, an increase of 3.5 per cent on the same month of last year.

A number of key markets saw marked acceleration in activity, the association said, with North Atlantic traffic increasing by 8.9 per cent in October, compared to 4.1 per cent in September.

Overall long-haul traffic through BAA's UK airports increased by 8.5 per cent in October.

European scheduled traffic saw 4.3 per cent growth in activity but UK domestic activity continued its ongoing decline, with a 2.4 per cent fall in passenger numbers.

Glasgow airport, which saw a 1.8 per cent drop in traffic, was the only individual hub not to record an increase in passengers in October, with Heathrow recording 3.8 per cent growth and Gatwick handling 4.9 per cent more passengers.

Scotland's other major hubs, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, sustained their strong growth trends, with monthly traffic increases of five per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively.