Busiest October on record
Summer Season Ends With Record Month At BIA
Birmingham International Airport (BIA) has experienced its busiest
October on record. The UK's 5th largest Airport handled 894,671
passengers during the month, a 7.7% increase on October last year.
Record passenger numbers have been prevalent throughout the summer
period, which proved to be the busiest season to date for the Airport.
BIA's Managing Director, Richard Heard, said, "Since the beginning of
May, 5.8 million people have passed through the airport and we have
experienced back-to-back record months throughout the summer season.
The passenger boom is a result of new routes, more direct
destinations, increased frequencies and easier worldwide connections,
which give Midlanders more choice and freedom than ever before.
"We are now ready for a busy winter season, which will see the
development and opening later in the year of better, more modern
passenger, retail and catering facilities to help handle these
growing activity levels in both our terminals. New and exciting long-
haul charter package holidays are now available to India, Egypt and
Mexico for winter 05/06, and we will continue to serve the 70 plus
regular direct scheduled services throughout Europe, the Indian sub-
continent and the Middle East."
Scheduled traffic grew by 22.3% overall with passenger numbers
increasing on non-EU flights which grew by 47.6%, on Transatlantic
services which were up 31.3%, as well as on flights to Asia which
rose by 27.4%. Additionally, the number of passengers using EU
services increased by 19.3% and domestic traffic grew by 18.9%.
The success of the Airport's investment in the Air-Rail Link to
Birmingham International Rail Station and new bus and coach facility
at the Airport has been seen this summer, with the proportion of
public transport now increased to 18.3%.
Growth was also achieved on a number of scheduled routes, including
Prague (+101.8%), Larnaca (+92.7%), Milan (+78.2%), Amsterdam
(+32.9%), Edinburgh (+25%), Zurich (+22%), Copenhagen (+16.5%),
Aberdeen (+12.4%) and Malta (+3.9%).
Whilst charter passenger numbers fell by 15.4% overall, several
destinations recorded an increase in passengers including Bulgaria
(+335%), Mexico (+38.6%), Croatia (+33.7%), Madeira (+24.9%), Turkey
(+23.2%), Cyprus (+14.3%), and Malta (+8.8%). This growth highlights
a general trend in the market towards alternative destinations and
away from the traditional package holiday hot-spots.
Scheduled traffic accounted for 69.6% of the total October figure
while charter passengers made up the remaining 30.4%.
BAA - October :-
Heathrow - 5,713,100 down 0.8%
Gatwick - 2,887,400 up 2.5%
Stansted - 1,917,400 up 0.6%
Glasgow - 868,400 up 1.2%
Edinburgh - 765,500 up 5.1%
Aberdeen - 262,900 up 7.1%
Southampton - 166,200 up 17.7%
Ian