BA strikes hamper passenger recovery

Passenger traffic at BAA's six British airports fell 1.5 per cent year-on-year in March, hit by seven days of strikes by British Airways cabin crew.

The UK operator, majority owned by Spain's Grupo Ferrovial, said its British airports handled 8.2 million passengers in March compared with 8.4 million in the same month last year.

Earlier this month BA cabin crew completed a four-day strike after walking out for three days earlier in March in a dispute over pay and jobs after the Unite union and BA failed to reach a peace deal following weeks of talks.

BAA said the two stoppages caused an estimated net loss of 200,000 passengers across its UK airports, of which 180,000 were at London Heathrow, where traffic rose 0.4 per cent compared to March 2009.

Without the strikes BAA estimated that Heathrow would have recorded a growth of 3.8 per cent on last year, while the group as a whole would have seen an increase of one per cent.