Gatwick Airport has had its best year on record with passenger numbers up 2.6% from last year to a total of 32.8 million travellers.

An overall increase in air travel, both in and out of the country, of 2% in the past financial year has seen 144.6 million passengers travelling through all of BAA’s UK airports.

A small reduction of 1.3% in passenger numbers occurred during March 2006 (compared with March last year) but this is blamed on a late Easter. 

Heathrow Airport said that the 7 July terrorist bombings, the Gate Gourmet dispute last summer and high oil prices all contributed to a 0.3% fall in passenger numbers. 

Scottish airports have seen large increases in passengers with Edinburgh up 2.4%, Glasgow up 5.6% and Aberdeen up 9.5%.  

Domestic and European scheduled flights increased slightly (1.3% and 3.4% respectively) while European charters were 10.2% lower. 

Flight traffic across the North Atlantic remains unchanged, while other long haul routes have seen a 7.3%. increase in passenger numbers. 

By Alix Young

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