The growing market from China and India led Heathrow to have its busiest January since 2006 this year.
Passenger numbers on routes to China from the London hub grew 30 per cent, while those to India rose 10 per cent, leading to the airport’s strongest January long-haul performance ever.
The airport saw total passenger numbers rise 4.6 per cent year on year to 5.05 million in January. Only half of this rise is attributed by Heathrow’s owners BAA to the bad weather in January 2010.
BAA’s airports as a whole saw an underlying increase of between 1.5% and 2% year on year this January. Domestic traffic grew most strongly, up 8.3%, having been more affected by snow in the same month last year. European scheduled traffic rose 2.7% and the North Atlantic services increased by 3.2%.
Among the BAA portfolio, Stansted passenger numbers fell 5.8%, underlining the contraction by some budget airlines. However, the airport benefited from the number of aircraft diversions in January 2010.
Edinburgh airport’s traffic grew around 10 per cent, bolstered by new scheduled routes to Europe and North Africa. Glasgow grew by around three per cent and Aberdeen airport by around five per cent, but Southampton’s underlying trend was down 1-2%.