117 Million Passengers Through BAA UK Airports In 1999/2000.

Business Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 11, 2000

BAA plc, the UK-based airport company, today announced its seven UK airports handled a total of 117.8 million passengers in the financial year ending March 2000, a strong 4.7% rise on the previous year.

In the month of March, the airports handled a total of 9.6 million passengers, 3.2% up on last March. (Easter 1999 boosted traffic in the last week of March 1999 and this held back the March on March comparison). The first three weeks of March 2000 showed very solid growth of 5.6% on the same period last year.

Year to March 2000 - highlights

For the first time, BAA's Southeast airports served more than 100 million passengers in the year. Stansted, the fastest growing airport in Europe, continued its exceptional record with the number of passengers increasing from 7.4 million to 9.9 million (+33.7%), due primarily to an 88% increase in its European scheduled traffic. Gatwick added 2.9% traffic for the year with 30.4 million passengers, reflecting a consolidation of growth following an exceptional surge in the prior year. Despite capacity pressures Heathrow grew by over a million passengers or 2.1% to 62.3 million passengers. P. Edinburgh passed the 5 million passenger mark for the first time. Thanks to its strong domestic and European scheduled traffic, the airport's passenger numbers grew by 13.1% to 5.2 million. Glasgow climbed to 6.8 million passengers up 3.5%.

Across the BAA Group it was the European scheduled traffic which increased most quickly (+7.7%) followed by Irish services (+6.6%) and North Atlantic (+5.5%). Air transport movements increased by 3.9% to 1.1 million.

March 2000 Highlights

Despite the late Easter in 2000 most of the key markets recorded increases, the largest at Stansted (+31.5%) and Edinburgh (+13.9%). European scheduled traffic was up by 6.5%, thanks mainly to a 77% increase at Stansted, while other long haul routes saw 4.8% growth. P. The later start to Easter resulted in the North Atlantic market rising by just 0.2% and European charters decreasing by 0.2%. P. The total number of air transport movements at BAA airports rose by 3.3% in the month.

BAA ordinary shares trade on the London Stock Exchange; prices may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbol BAA LN, on the Reuter Equities 2000 Service under BAA.L and on Quotron under BAANU.EU. BAA ADRs, each equal to one ordinary share, appear on the pink sheets under BAAPY. Additional information is available on BAA's home page: http://www.baa.co.uk.

  BAA Traffic Summary : March 2000
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Terminal                          %       (a) Financial           %
  Passengers (000s)      Month    Change    Year 1999/00        Change
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Heathrow              5,297.6     0.5       62,270.7           2.1
  Gatwick               2,295.3     0.3       30,415.2           2.9
  Stansted                848.3    31.5        9,901.7          33.7
  London Area Total     8,441.2     2.9      102,587.5           4.7
  Southampton              66.3     9.8          767.3           1.8
  Glasgow                 486.9     2.4        6,781.6           3.5
  Edinburgh               436.2    13.9        5,213.9          13.1
  Aberdeen                197.3    -4.2        2,437.5          -6.8
  Scottish Total        1,120.4     5.2       14,433.1           4.7
  BAA Total             9,627.9     3.2      117,788.0           4.7

Air Transport                    %       (a) Financial            %
Movements              Month    Change     Year 1999/00       Change
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Heathrow              38,636      2.7        454,188           2.7
  Gatwick               19,712      0.9        247,382           1.3
  Stansted              11,649     11.9        139,689          21.4
  London Area Total     69,997      3.6        841,259           5.0
  Southampton            2,252      4.7         25,226          -8.0
  Glasgow                7,188      5.5         87,449           4.2
  Edinburgh              7,517      9.4         86,009          12.9
  Aberdeen               6,665     -8.3         80,229         -10.4
  Scottish Total        21,370      2.0        253,687           1.7
  BAA Total             93,619      3.3      1,120,172           3.9

(a) The 12 month period April 1999 to March 2000 compared with the
    period April 1998 to March 1999. Above data excludes Air Taxi
    passengers and Air Taxi movements.

Market Comparison: March 2000
----------------------------------------------------------------------
                     BAA Total        BAA Total
Market                March 99         March 00            % Change
                        (000s)           (000s)
                        Month            Month
Domestic                  1,761           1,773              0.7
Eire                        482             478             -0.8
European Scheduled        3,364           3,584              6.5
European Charter(a)         683             682             -0.2
North Atlantic            1,574           1,578              0.2
Other Long Haul           1,464           1,533              4.8
Total                     9,327           9,628              3.2

Market Comparison: Financial Year 98-99 with 99-00

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                       BAA Total           BAA Total
Market              Apr 98 to Mar 99    Apr 99 to Mar 00     % Change
                         (000s)              (000s)
Domestic                20,830            20,956              0.6
Eire                     5,561             5,926              6.6
European Scheduled      38,722            41,704              7.7
European Charter(a)     12,603            12,629              0.2
North Atlantic          18,448            19,459              5.5
Other Long Haul         16,339            17,113              4.7
Total                  112,502           117,788              4.7

(a) includes North African Charter Note: Origins and destinations are classified according to ultimate origin or destination of aircraft in the case of multi sector flights Note: Figures for the market sectors have been rounded. Totals as per Traffic Summary