Britain's leading airport operator, BAA, yesterday revealed it had lost 100,000 customers during last month's walkout by British Airways check-in staff, partly because people mistakenly assumed that Heathrow was closed.
The dispute prevented July from becoming BAA's busiest month ever. The company said 13.2 million people visited its seven British airports, a rise of 2.2% on the previous year but just short of last August's record figure.
The two-day unofficial strike by BA's terminal employees caused the cancellation of 500 flights and affected 80,000 passengers.
BAA said many people did not even set out for Heathrow on the assumption that they would not be able to travel.
"There is always some misunderstanding about the relationship between the airline and the airport," said a BAA spokeswoman. "Some people think that because BA's not flying the airport's not open at all."
Heathrow's management set up marquees outside terminal buildings to cope with stranded travellers. BAA said it spent more than £1m on free food, drinks and special arrangements to cope with the crisis - money which will not be claimed back from BA because the airport operator sees it as part of its "customer service" responsibility.
Heathrow's passenger numbers fell 0.7% to 6.02 million. Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were also affected by the BA dispute, although BAA said this was cancelled out by people seeking alternative travel from Stansted, where traffic rose 11% to 1.86 million.
Dominic Edridge, a transport analyst at Commerzbank, said there was evidence that Britain's appetite for travel was recovering from the effects of Sars and the war on Iraq.
"Airlines are offering some very good prices - that's going to encourage people to fly," he said. "BAA doesn't really mind how much people are paying to fly as long as they go to the airport."
BAA also tapped the debt market yesterday with a £425m bond issue. Two-thirds of the money will repay an existing bond, to put repayments on a longer term footing. The rest will go towards the company's investment programme, including construction of Heathrow's fifth terminal.
Last week the international airlines body Iata suggested the industry had "turned a corner". Its figures for June showed an 11.8% year-on-year fall in passenger numbers, against a 21% drop in May.
