The firm that runs seven leading UK airports, has said passenger numbers rose 8.1% in September compared with same month last year.

However, comparisons were distorted by the 11 September attacks on the US last year when all transatlantic flights were halted for several days and global air travel was severely disrupted.

Since then the aviation industry has battled to restore travellers confidence in airline safety and persuade people to fly.

Overall, passenger numbers were down 1.7% in the 12 months to 30 September, UK airport operator BAA said.

Those figures suggest the air travel industry has still to fully recover from the downturn.

Budget bonanza

The figures reflected the growing influence of low cost airlines.

While all the three main London airports showed gains, low-cost hub Stansted attracted the biggest increase in travellers.

Passenger numbers at Stansted were up 13.7%, compared to 12% at Heathrow and only 0.4% at Gatwick.

British Airways' decision to cut some services at Gatwick was behind the poor figures there, analysts said.

BAA said low fares had helped boost the number of passengers on European scheduled flights by 13.3% and on UK flights by 7.8%.

European charter passenger numbers grew 3.3% and Irish routes grew 1.5%.

Transatlantic turmoil

The biggest increase, 14.7%, was on North Atlantic routes, but BAA said comparisons with passenger numbers last September were not straightforward.

"North Atlantic routes were heavily distorted by last September's tragic events and the closure of US airspace," said BAA.

Altogether, 12.1 million passengers used BAA's airports in September.

Regional UK airports all recorded growth in passenger numbers except Southampton.

BAA's three Scottish airports - Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, had a 6.4% overall increase with Edinburgh doing best with an 8.7% rise.

On the London stock market, BAA's shares closed up 4.5 pence at 532 pence.