Heathrow has record passenger numbers for 3rd month

Passenger numbers at London's Heathrow airport broke new records in June for the third month in a row, owner BAA announced. Some 6.1 million passengers travelled through the airport last month, 6.3% above the year-earlier period, while.April and May were also record months, the airports operator said. June 2010 saw some impact from industrial action at British Airways, but even without that impact Heathrow achieved underlying growth of around 3.8%. For the full first half of 2011, Heathrow handled 32.9 million passengers; a 9.1% jump from the previous year, BAA said. The airport's growth was driven by long-haul traffic and by more people making transfers there to other flights. Brazil was the strongest performing individual market, seeing a 65.4% growth in passengers to and from Heathrow versus June 2010. BAA said its six airports handled a total of 9.9 million passengers during June, up 4.4%. Numbers at BAA's other major London airport, Stansted, fell 3.3% last month and the Southampton passenger total was 0.8% down, but BAA's three Scottish airports all saw rises, with Aberdeen up 10.1%, Edinburgh up 7.6% and Glasgow up 2.6%. BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: "Heathrow's position as the UK's only hub airport enables it to benefit from growth in long-haul routes and emerging economies. "June's passenger figures are an early indication of a busy summer, and we will focus on delivering the best possible service standards at our most popular time of year." However, BAA said growth in the global air freight market continues to slow as the strong post-recession recovery phase comes to an end. In June, cargo traffic at BAA’s airports was down 1.5% on last year though up by 20% on June 2009.