BAA benefits from holiday mood

THE price war in the skies over Britain, pitching old-style operators such as British Airways and bmi British Midland against the upstart budget airlines easyJet and Ryanair, plus a bumper holiday season, has helped offset the continuing no-show of American business people and tourists at Britain's airports.

Airports operator BAA handled 13.2m passengers at its seven airports around Britain in August, growth of 2.3% on the same month last year.

'Among the key markets, the European charter market experienced a 10.6% gain on last August, to 2.1m passengers,' said the company. 'Poor early summer weather in the UK and the World Cup are both believed to have contributed to the late-season surge,' the company said.

It added: 'Strong domestic traffic growth continued with a 9.2% increase in August, boosted by the new lower fares from the traditional and low-cost scheduled airlines. This also helped Irish traffic to a 5.2% rise.'

Growth in passengers on short-haul routes - good news also for BAA's profits as such travellers are reckoned to spend more in airport shops - made up for the continuing shortfall in American passengers. Numbers travelling the North Atlantic were down 8% year on year.