BAA says December's cold weather cost it £24m

 

 

The heavy snow in December cost UK airports operator BAA £24m, the company has said.

Many thousands of air passengers were affected in December as Heathrow and other airports closed temporarily.

BAA said it had handled 7.2 million passengers at its six UK airports in December, down 10.9% from a year ago.

Earlier this week, Virgin Atlantic said it was withholding the fees it pays to BAA because of its "slow reaction" to the heavy snow.

BAA said the drop in passenger traffic in December was almost entirely due to the severe weather.

Passenger numbers were down 9.5% at Heathrow, BAA's largest airport, but all the firm's airports saw steep falls in traffic, with user numbers at Southampton airport down 22% and Edinburgh down 18.4%.

For the year as a whole, BAA said it had handled 103.9 million passengers, down 2.8% from 2009.

However, BAA said that excluding the impact of the severe weather, and the disruption caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud in April and May last year, it estimated passenger numbers would have risen 0.6% in 2010.