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In December, over 150,000 travellers chose to stay at home, rather than run the gauntlet of delays, cancellations, and bad weather at UK airports. The news has aviation bosses braced for another taxing year, even as the global recession begins to abate.
This time last week the whole of the UK was covered in snow but the wintry weather has reasserted its grip on the south of England, which will have a negative effect on airports.
Much of Britain is thawing, albeit slowly, and most airports are back to running at full capacity. There are exceptions, of course – Birmingham and Gatwick were both closed this morning, forcing passengers to endure lengthy delays, but otherwise, the skies and runways are now clear of snow.
The BAA’s traffic figures for December paint a rather worrying picture of British aviation, however, and January’s numbers are set to be even worse, as cancellations start to catch up with airlines.
Adverse weather conditions at the end of last year resulted in a 0.9% fall in festive travellers over the figures for December 2008, and Stansted Airport nosedived by 2.6% in just one month, ironically, its best monthly performance for almost two years.
EasyJet and Ryanair proved to be persistent thorns in the BAA’s side last year, reducing the number of flights available to Stansted customers, and delaying their winter schedules until the very last minute.
As Stansted’s revenue hinges upon holidaymakers, as opposed to rich executives, like Heathrow, the lack of budget flights helped exacerbate the downward trend in passenger numbers.
BAA boss, Colin Matthews, was cautious about the coming year – “2009 was a difficult year for our airline customers. Towards the end of the year, we saw signs of improvements, particularly at Heathrow, but there are more challenging times ahead in 2010.”
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