Only 3 of 34 UK airports grew in 2009
Only three out of all the UK's airports with more than 150,000 yearly passengers experienced traffic growth in 2009, according to the UK CAA passenger statistics.
There are 34 airports that currently handle over 150,000 passengers and it was the smallest airport, Scatsta Airport, Shetland Islands that experienced growth, hence from it came from a very low base.
The total UK airport passenger market fell 7.2% in 2009. What's more, the majority of these airports also experienced a fall in traffic in 2008 where 21 of the 34 airports experienced growth (only 13 achieving growth). The prolonged recession is creating problems for the UK airports industry, where airports have to reduce their cost base and re-engineer their budgets.
The Winners
Even London Heathrow, where slots are precious and carriers will protect these slots by not reducing capacity, the passenger traffic fell nearly -1.5%, according to the UK CAA Statistics. Other UK airports that performed better than the average drop of 8% include: Guernsey (-1.4%), London Gatwick (-5.3%) and Birmingham (-5.%).
The Losers
The real losers from the recession have been the some of the smaller regional airports which have seen carriers, particularly charter carriers withdraw capacity as the tour operators consolidate traffic into the larger airports. The real losers have been: Teesside (-55%), Blackpool (-37%), Norwich (-26.3%), Glasgow Prestwick (-24.7%), Londonderry (-17.9%), Humberside (-21%) and Bournemouth (-19.5%).
There are few signs of recovery for 2010; January figures from the British Airport Authority (BAA) are showing a continued decline of -3.1% across the BAA group, not helped by the inability of the UK to cope with the bad weather. It is estimated that the traffic drop would have still been -0.3% without the snow (with a growth at Heathrow of 2.5% instead of a decline of -0.5%). Also the UK economy is set to limp along and there are even fears of a double dip recession. As carriers trim capacity in 2010, they will no doubt be delaying any plans for growth until 2011.
UK Airport Passenger Traffic Growth 2009 versus 2008
| Airport | 2008 | 2009 | % Growth |
| SCS | 245,253 | 269,754 | +11 |
| LHR | 66,923,568 | 65,907,183 | -1.5 |
| BHD | 2,575,661 | 2,621,823 | -2 |
| EDI | 8,997,042 | 9,044,337 | +0.6 |
| GCI | 905,343 | 901,972 | -1.4 |
| LGW | 34,161,702 | 32,361,078 | -5.3 |
| BHX | 9,565,723 | 9,093,735 |
-5.0 |
| BRS | 6,226,134 | 5,615,170 | -9.8 |
| LTN | 10,160,547 | 9,115,313 | -10.4 |
| IOM | 755,750 | 709,316 | -6 |
| STN | 22,335,890 | 19,950,459 | -10.7 |
| NCL | 4,999,616 | 4,568,683 | -8.9 |
| LBA | 2,850,965 | 2,552,605 | -10.8 |
| ABZ | 3,292,241 | 2,983,792 | -9.3 |
| MAN | 21,115,377 | 18,630,439 | -11.5 |
| SOU | 1,979,607 | 1,789,443 | -8 |
| JER | 1,602,427 | 1,461,035 | -8.2 |
| DSA | 965,146 | 834,636 | -13.8 |
| LCY | 3,268,312 | 2,796,890 | -14.2 |
| GLA | 8,162,195 | 7,213,545 | -11.3 |
| BFS | 5,216,576 | 4,536,498 | -13.1 |
| LPL | 5,337,074 | 4,880,098 | -8.4 |
| EXT | 953,817 | 789,778 | -17 |
| NQY | 400,616 | 346,494 | -19.6 |
| EMA | 5,610,165 | 4,652,913 | -17.2 |
| CWL | 1,973,575 | 1,624,728 | -17.9 |
| INV | 665,566 | 583,376 | -13 |
| BOH | 1,079,369 | 868,445 | -19.5 |
| HUY | 424,877 | 335,149 | -21 |
| LDY | 441,173 | 345,857 | -21.2 |
| PIK | 2,408,647 | 1,817,274 | -24.7 |
| NWI | 593,377 | 429,542 | -26.3 |
| BLK | 438,547 | 276,860 | -37 |
| MME | 643,932 | 288,327 | -55 |
| Grand Total | 238,588,595 | 221,277,185 | -7.2 |
Source: UK CAA Passenger Traffic Statistics
All UK Airports with more than 150,000 passengers in 2009
Data for December is still provisional (as at 10/2/2010)
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