All of BAA's seven airports enjoyed an increase in passenger numbers

The owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted handled a total of 10.2 million people in November, a 3% rise on the same month last year.

Passenger numbers to and from North America were down 1.2%, which BAA blamed on the US presidential election.

BAA said would-be US travellers instead stayed at home to vote.

Strong growth

The European charter flight market, typically holiday trips, fell 13.4%, but BAA said this was partially due to a number of flights from its Scottish airports - Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh - being reclassified as scheduled.

Yet passenger numbers increased in all other sectors and at each of BAA's seven airports.

The number of passengers using Heathrow rose 1.2% while Gatwick, Stansted and Southampton saw passenger numbers rise 4.6%, 4.2% and 9.9% respectively.

Passenger numbers were up 10.9% at Aberdeen, 5.6% at Glasgow and 4.5% at Edinburgh.

In the 12 months ending November 2004, the seven airports handled almost 140 million passengers, a 7% rise on the 12 months ending November 2003.