Heathrow Airport has recorded its first monthly increase in passengers since February 2001, after recovering from the ravages on tourism of foot and mouth disease, tough economic conditions and the events of September 11.
Figures from airport operator BAA yesterday showed a 2.2% year-on-year increase in travellers passing through Heathrow in March. For the company's seven airports, which include Gatwick and Stansted, the number of passengers was up 3.4% to 10.1m.
A BAA spokeswoman said the numbers were boosted by this year's early Easter. North Atlantic traffic was beginning to pick up, while budget airlines were growing rapidly.
"The overall improvement has continued. We saw a lot of traffic from people visiting friends and relatives over Easter. People will travel home to visit their families if the price is right."
In contrast to Heathrow's return to growth, passenger numbers fell 3.3% at Gatwick - compared with falls of 10.8% and 16.4% in previous months. Gatwick has borne the brunt of cuts in airline schedules, with many carriers shuffling flights to keep their slots full at Heathrow.
Paul Denley, a transport analyst at Williams de Broe, said: "The aviation industry is certainly on the road to recovery, although things like the Middle East and oil price increases don't help. I think we'll see a continuation of the trend back towards health."
BAA said that for the year to March 31, its airports handled 121.9m passengers, down 2.2%.
Stansted, used by low-cost carriers such as Go and Ryanair, was one of Europe's fastest growing terminals with traffic up 14.9%.
