BAA, the owner of Heathrow and Gatwick airports, saw passenger traffic fall for a 12th straight month in March as the recession hits demand for business and holiday travel. Passenger numbers fell 11.3pc across BAA's seven airports in the UK from a year earlier, to 10.6m people. Gatwick, one of the airports the Competition Commission is forcing BAA to sell, was the worst hit, seeing a 17.7 pc drop in traffic.

Airlines have cut services as the recession deepens, and BAA's numbers for March were also hurt by the Easter holiday falling in April this year.  At Heathrow, the busiest UK airport, passenger numbers were 7.5pc lower. Airports with a higher proportion of holiday passengers were harder hit - at Stansted, traffic declined by 15.9pc and Glasgow was down by 13pc.

Read the full article in The Telegraph.


Is this another example of the increasing demand for airport capacity which the DfT, BAA and BA continually trumpet?

Don't forget that despite the huge drop in demand over the past year, Heathrow is still 99.9% full according to the aviation lobby.

Remarkable, isn't it?