BAA Group airports in the UK handled 10.2 million passengers in February, an increase of 3.5% on the same month last year. Traffic in the first 28 days of the month (i.e. ignoring the extra leap year day) was down by 0.5% on last February.

European scheduled traffic was up by just 0.1% while European charters rose by 1.5%. North Atlantic activity was 1.1% lower, while traffic on other long haul routes was, in aggregate, up by 1.0%. Domestic traffic continued its recent softness with a 3.7% decrease.

Again adjusting for the leap year distortion, there were mixed results for individual airports. Heathrow’s traffic was up by 0.1%, Gatwick’s by 3.4% and Edinburgh by 3.9%. Moving in the other direction were Stansted (-7.6%), Glasgow (-5.7%) and Aberdeen (-1.2%).

In total, and before adjusting for the extra day, air transport movements were up by 0.8% but down 3.0% after adjustment. On this latter basis Gatwick (+0.6%) was the only individual airport to handle more movements in February.