BRITISH AIRWAYS CARRIED almost 6 per cent more passengers in November than in the same month in 2009. But the carrier has warned that flight cancellations during the recent wintry conditions, especially at Gatwick, will affect December numbers.
BA said traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, increased by 3.5 per cent and that passenger capacity on its aircraft - measured in available seat kilometres - was up 5.1 per cent on November 2009, although load factors decreased by 1.2 percentage points to 74.7 per cent.
Premium traffic continued to grow, up 4.5 per cent year-on-year, while the numbers flying in economy were up 3.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, Easyjet reported a 10.2 per cent increase in passengers for November compared to the same month last year.
The low-cost carrier said it flew 3,694,514 people during the month against 3,351,187 in 2009. Its load factor rose by 0.9 per cent percentage points to 85.7 per cent.
The airline said that over the 12 months from November 2009, passenger figures had risen by 8 per cent to 49,461,229, while load factors had increased by 1.4 percentage points to 87.2 per cent.
In its full-year figures published in November, Easyjet said total revenue per seat had risen by 5.1 per cent, while capacity had increased by 6 per cent. This included a 15.9 per cent rise in mainland Europe.
The carrier also claimed its market share had increased from 6.5 per cent to 7.6 per cent.
Ryanair said it carried 5.06 million passengers in November, a 2 per cent increase on last year's figure.