September 2012 traffic figures - BAA's airports

Heathrow saw 6.3 million passengers pass through its terminals, a record for September and up 0.6% on the same month last year.

European scheduled traffic overall was up 0.2%. Within that passenger numbers to and from Spain were up 6.2%, but Greece and Portugal both saw their traffic fall 4.8%. North Atlantic traffic continued to perform well, up 4.5% on last September. Brazil and China passenger numbers increased 14% and 5.9% respectively whilst traffic to and from India fell 7%.

Overall, nearly 9.2m passengers passed through BAA's five airports in September 2012, the same as September 2011 and an improvement on the falls of 4.1% in July and 2.0% in August.

At Stansted, passenger numbers were down 4.0% compared with September 2011, whilst traffic through Southampton declined 4.4%.

Traffic through Aberdeen was up 1.4% and Glasgow was up 5.6%, resulting in a total increase at the Scottish airports of 4.4%.

Cargo performed well, up 2.5% across the group with a 1.7% rise at Heathrow and a 5.2% increase at Stansted.

BAA Chief Executive Colin Matthews said: "Heathrow saw record passenger numbers in September. Traffic to and from the BRIC economies, other than India, demonstrates the on-going importance of hub capacity to connect the UK to growth markets. The Davies Commission must rigorously and objectively assess every option to meet our country's economic needs."