Heathrow breaks annual passenger record

Heathrow has broken its record for the most passengers in a single year after 69.4 million people used the airport last year.

BAA, which owns the airport, said that the passenger numbers for 2011 meant that Heathrow was operating at 99.2% of its permitted limits and broke the previous passenger record of 67.9 million in 2007. But the final 69.4 million figure for last year was slightly below the estimate of 69.7 million passengers made by BAA in December.

Heathrow was boosted by growth in traffic to countries such as the US, Germany, Switzerland, France and Brazil in 2011 – European traffic was up 7.6% to 28.5 million while transatlantic passengers rose by 7.5% to 15.8 million.

But domestic traffic from Heathrow fell by 2.9% to 4.7 million passengers which BAA said was largely due to the cutting of Bmi's Glasgow service.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said that Heathrow’s punctuality in 2011 was the “best in over a decade” while an Airport Service Quality passenger survey showed that 70% of passengers rated their experience at the airport  as 'excellent' or 'very good', compared with 41% in 2006.

Matthews added: "BAA delivered a strong operational performance in 2011 with record traffic levels and high service standards at Heathrow.

“We continued to invest significantly in further improving our airports during 2011, particularly on the new Heathrow Terminal 2.”

Traffic declined by 2.8% to 18 million passengers at Stansted, also owned by BAA, last year. BAA said this was down to airlines, such as Ryanair, deploying capacity away from the UK and into other European  markets.

BAA has been told to sell Stansted by the Competition Commission but the company said it was “currently considering its position” after losing the latest appeal against this enforced sale of the airport.

The company is also in the process of selling Edinburgh with interested parties putting in their bids earlier this month.