British airports saw a record number of passengers pass through their doors last month, despite the terrorist attacks in London.
Airports operator BAA said domestic travel was hardest hit, with many passengers cancelling flights and making alternative transport arrangements. The explosions on July 7 paralysed the underground and mainline rail network in London making it impossible for some passengers to reach airports to make flights. In the wake of the blasts, the initial advice to office workers to stay indoors until police and emergency services took control of the situation also meant many flights were missed.
The affect of this could be clearly seen at Heathrow, where passenger numbers fell to 6.46 million in July - down 0.6 per cent on a year ago.
BAA handled a total of 14.6 million travellers last month and a spokesman said the numbers would only have been "fractionally higher" if the bomb blasts had not taken place.
The drop-off in domestic travel at Heathrow was cushioned by the fact that the airport is running at peak capacity during the summer, with no spare slots for flights. In addition, the current craze for low-cost travel meant its other airports in the London area, at Gatwick and Stansted, continued to show growth compared with a year earlier.
Gatwick handled 3.57 million passengers in July - up 3.3 per cent on the same stage of 2004 - and Stansted saw 6.1 per cent more people use its facilities than last year, totalling 2.18 million.
The BAA spokesman said the terrorist attacks that killed more than 50 people on July 7 had more of an impact on travel than the failed bombings on July 21.
"The slight drop-off (in passenger numbers) would have been people in the wrong place to make connections for their flights or just decided to make a different travel choice in the wake of the bombings," he said.
Despite the attacks on domestic travel, there was still some growth seen in the sector, although at a much lower rate than in recent months. Across all its airports, BAA said domestic services rose 1.4 per cent in July compared with growth of 4 per cent in the previous month. The short-haul charter market proved to be the weakest sector during the month, with 5.5 per cent fewer passenger movements.
European scheduled traffic was up 3.8 per cent and North Atlantic traffic increased by 1 per cent, while other long-haul routes continued their recent strong trend with growth of 7.5 per cent.