Heathrow numbers down 1.2 million in April because of cloud
Airport operator BAA said this morning that passenger traffic in April was down 22.7% on the same month last year, due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which closed UK airspace for several days.
Heathrow was estimated to have lost nearly 1.2 million passengers but proportionately smaller airports were worst affected with Southampton reporting a 27% fall (45,000 passengers).
For the month as a whole BAA's UK airports handled a total of 6.9 million passengers. Losses attributable to the volcanic ash cloud were estimated at:
- Heathrow 21%
- Stansted 21%
- Southampton 27%
- Glasgow 22%
- Edinburgh 26%
- Aberdeen 20%
- BAA UK 21.5%
In total BAA reported a decrease of 21.0% in the number of air transport movements handled, with all airports reporting falls of between 15% and 25%. Air cargo tonnage was up by 6.2% on last year, despite the disruption.
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