UK CAA May passenger numbers

The UK CAA has published traffic figures for May 2009.

Once again the key London area traffic to the three state airports has shown a significant YoY decline.

From Dublin, Gatwick traffic which is split between Ryanair and Aer Lingus showed a 7% YoY decline at 89,027 which was marginally down on the April figure. Heathrow and Stansted both showed negative trends with LHR down 14% to 131,191 passengers and Stansted (a Ryanair preserve) down 20% to 65,862. Luton was down 2% YoY at 29,321. In total, Dublin's traffic to the 'Big 4' London area airports was down 13.8% .

At Cork, Gatwick traffic was down 3% to 9,652. Heathrow was down 14% to 40,630 while Stansted, again a Ryanair preserve took a hit, down 12% to 23,676. In total, Cork's London traffic was down 12.4% YoY for the month.

Shannon has fared similar to Dublin and Cork with Gatwick traffic down 5% YoY at 17,160 and Stansted down 17%, to 24,536.

May was the second full month on the reinstated Heathrow - Shannon route. A total of 11,838 passengers were carried for the month as against 11,381 in April which had one less calendar day.

A total of 108 sectors were flown, but this month the aircraft type was split between A321 and A320. The monthly total of passengers flown therefore equates to a load factor of 54.7% when the mix of 174 seat A320 and 212 seat A321 is taken into consideration.

In Belfast, City Airport bucked many, many months of decline on the key LHR route (a BMI domain) with numbers growing 9% YoY to 46,352. The shocker though is Aer Arann's Cork - Belfast City route which saw passenger numbers drop 28% YoY to 2,964.

At Belfast International, Aer Lingus LHR figures have shown a 13% gain YoY to 23,715.