PASSENGER numbers at Southampton Airport dropped by 2.2 per cent last month compared with September 2000 in the wake of the terrorist attacks, which has prompted the present crisis, on New York's World Trade Centre last month.
Numbers also plummeted by 13 per cent at Heathrow, the UK's biggest airport. Both airports are operated by the British Airports Authority. Southampton's numbers were down both before and after the attacks.
Numbers using Gatwick airport in West Sussex also fell - by 6.2 per cent - as the effects of the terrorist attacks on the USA were felt.
But improving figures at four of the BAA's five other UK airports helped reduce the overall passenger number reduction at the company's seven airports last month to 6.0 per cent compared with September 2000, BAA reported.
In all, the BAA airports, which also include Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, handled 11.24 million passenger in September 2001.
Stansted was up 11.4 per cent, Glasgow up 6.9 per cent, Edinburgh up 13.4 per cent and Aberdeen up 0.5 per cent on the numbers they had in 2000.
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