Britain’s major airports bore the brunt of last year’s “staycation” with figures showing that they carried 4.7 million passengers fewer than in 2008.

The 4.1 per cent drop, announced by BAA, reflected a year in which the recession saw demand for overseas holidays drop and a number of airlines ground planes to save money.

Worst hit was Stansted, with 2.3 million drop – representing 10 per cent of total as both Ryanair and easyJet cut back on capacity.

Passenger numbers plummeted in the first half of the year, when not only was the economy at its lowest ebb, but weather forecasters were predicting a “barbecue summer”.

When the barbecue summer stubbornly refused to appear, there was a surge in bookings in the second half of the year, which slowed down the rate of decline compared to the first six months of 2009.

BAA now operates six airports: Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen having been forced to sell Gatwick by the Competition Commission. Last year these six airports handled 106.9 million passengers.

A spokesman for Stansted, an airport heavily dependent on holiday traffic, described 2009 as a “game of two halves”.

It was hit by the decision of both Ryanair and easyJet to delay introducing their summer timetables because of the downturn, but saw a recovery as the recession eased.

Glasgow also had a bad year with an 11.3 per cent fall in passengers, with numbers being hit by the collapse of Globespan at the end of the year.

“2009 was a difficult year for our airline customers,” said Colin Matthews, BAA’s chief executive.

“Towards the end of the year, we saw signs of improvements, particularly at Heathrow, but there are more challenging times ahead in 2010.”

Original Source – Telegraph