Traffic at Heathrow Airport Increases Despite British Airways Strikes

Although the strikes at British Airways hit passenger traffic at airports across the country, Heathrow Airport is continuing to grow. The airport’s operator, BAA, reports that there was a 0.4% increase in traffic to 5.2 million for the month of March compared to last year. However, if the strikes hadn’t happened, traffic would have rose 3.8%.

This comes after British Airways said that they estimate the industrial action to have caused them £40-£45 million in losses. The airport operator also said that Heathrow Airport lost 180,000 passengers due to the strike, while the number of arrivals and departures declined 6.5%. For the first 3 months of 2010, the BAA says that Heathrow’s traffic rose by 1.6% to 14.6 million, with February recording the largest rise in over 2 years.

Colin Matthews, the chief executive of the airport operator, said that the market will definitely continue to be difficult, and the strikes only complicated it further. However, Heathrow Airport continues to show resilience, as it’s the only hub airport in the UK, he added.

Heathrow Airport wasn’t the only one to have a rise in passenger traffic, with Southampton increasing 5.3% and Naples by 5.7%. However, Stansted, Edinburgh and Glasgow didn’t fair as well, with losses of 4.2%, 3.3% and 9.6% respectively – even though they were unaffected by the strikes. For the last 3 months, however, Stansted’s passenger traffic fell by 4.7% and Glasgow’s fell by 9%.

The British Airways strike was felt across the aviation industry worldwide. However, they aren’t the only travel company dealing with staff strikes. Businesses have had to make cutbacks to lower costs, but workers are having a hard time giving up their life support.