The interruption caused by Britain’s giant freeze cost airfield operator BAA 150,000 passengers last month.
The group, which owns 6 UK airfields including Heathrow and Stansted, blamed the wintry weather and the breakdown of Scottish airline FlyGlobespan for a fall in passenger numbers last month. 2009 had already been a tough year for BAA, with the recession ravaging the airline industry. “Passengers at airfields across Europe and Northern America were influenced by cancellations and interruption stemming from mist and snow,” claimed BAA, which is the property of Spanish corporation Ferrovial. “It is ascertained that weather conditions accounted for the loss of 150,000 passengers at BAA’s airports.” the amount of people taking internal flights inside Britain dropped by 6.5%, BAA claimed, with passenger numbers to North America dropping by 5.7%. But there had been a rise in folk flying to continental Europe. The wintry weather started in the middle of December, interrupting road, rail and air transport in the run-up to Xmas .
70 flights were cancelled at Heathrow on Fri. eighteen December, which would be its busiest day of the festive period. Regardless of this, Heathrow achieved a 1.2% increase in passenger numbers during December. Manchester Hotels
At Stansted, though , passenger numbers were down 2.6% in the month. The picture was gloomier in Scotland, where the passing of FlyGlobespan left crowds of people without a flight. Glasgow handled 8.8% less folk in December, while traffic at Aberdeen was down 9.4%. December’s results mean that BAA’s UK airports handled a total of 106.9 million folk in 2009, down 4.2% on 2008. The rate of decline slowed to 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Colin Matthews, BAA’s CEO, recounted that 2009 had been a tough year for airlines. “Towards the end of the year, we saw indicators of enhancements, especially at Heathrow, but there are way more challenging times ahead in 2010,” he claimed. More flights were cancelled in England today, as the rough weather continued to cause disruption.
Heathrow airfield warned passengers : “Our airport team is working round the clock to keep both runways clear but further ice and snow at the airport remains. Additionally, current interruption at Heathrow and other airfields has related effects which may lead to further delays and cancellations.” Brit Airways is allowing some Heathrow passengers to cancel their tickets and get a complete refund, even if their flight is still operating. This will help it deal with the buildup of passengers which has built up over the last one or two weeks. A BAA spokesman confirmed that Jan’s passengers numbers will have the snow, although it is generally a quieter month than December.
