The UK airports operator BAA has said passenger numbers were "profoundly affected" by the terror attacks in the US.

The company saw overall passenger numbers fall by 6% last month, compared with the previous September.

Heathrow and Gatwick saw the biggest fall in traffic, but some other airports experienced a rise reflecting the continued success of low cost airlines.

The worst affected routes were across the north Atlantic, where passenger numbers fell by more than a quarter.

Low cost airlines to the rescue

The figures released by BAA show what a dramatic impact the events of 11 September had on airline traffic.

Until that point the company says numbers were up by 3% on last year, but after the attacks traffic fell 10.6%.

Heathrow was the worst affected airport. seeing numbers drop 13% over the month, while Gatwick experienced a 6.2% fall.

But there was some good news for BAA with numbers at its Stansted, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports all showing "strong growth".

This was due to the ongoing success of low cost airlines, who appear to have been less affected by last month's events.

Unsurprisingly the worst affected routes were across the North Atlantic where numbers were down 25.9%.

Other long haul traffic fell 6.8%

Industry crisis

The reluctance of people to travel by air after last month's terrorist attacks has plunged the airline industry into crisis.

More than 100,000 jobs have been shed by airlines around the world as they attempt to cut back costs.

BAA had already issued some traffic figures for September last week, as the bad news from the airlines began to mount.

On Wednesday the European Commission approved a limited package of measures to bolster airlines following last month's attacks.