BAA Passenger Figures for December 2000.

Business Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2001

BAA plc, the U.K.-based airport company, yesterday announced that its seven U.K. airports handled 8.8 million passengers in December, an increase of 11.2% on December 1999, with several factors impacting the figures: U.K. domestic traffic, excluding Channel Isles, grew 14.3% due to continued rail service disruption giving a total of 150,000 more passenger movements, over a quarter of whom traveled through Stansted.

This December also includes a recovery in passengers who did not travel in December 1999 due to concerns about the Millennium date change.

Adjusting for these factors, the underlying increase for the month was close to 5%.

European charter traffic grew in December by 12.4%, longhaul (other than North Atlantic) by 15.5% and European scheduled services rose by 9.9%, all impacted by the recovery from the Year 2000 effect.

Among individual airports Stansted (+31.1%) and Southampton (+16.5%) remained the fastest growing. Gatwick added 12.8% and Heathrow increased by 7.5%. Despite the impact on the Scottish airports of bad weather between Christmas and New Year, they recorded a collective increase of 10.8%.

The 11.2% increase in passengers at BAA's U.K. airports was achieved despite a gain of just 2.5% in the number of air transport movements. Cargo tonnage was down 3.9% on last December, reflecting the above average levels of cargo activity seen in the final months of 1999.

Passenger traffic at BAA's 7 U.K. airports in 2000 (1st January to 31st December) reached a record 123.8 million, an increase of 6% against 1999.

The fastest growing airport in the group was Stansted, adding 25.8% traffic (a total of 11.9 million passengers), underpinned by a 56.6% growth in European scheduled traffic.

Gatwick rose 5% to 31.9 million passengers with strong North Atlantic traffic (+8.9%). Heathrow added 3.7% to 64.3 million passengers and Scottish airports grew by 4.2% overall with the most notable increase at Edinburgh, up 8% to 5.5 million passengers.

The most buoyant market sector for the year remained the European scheduled traffic (+8.8%) accounting for 44.7 million passengers across the group. Long haul, other than U.S. traffic, added 8.5% across the group to 18.4 million passengers and North Atlantic traffic was up 4.1% to 20.1 million passengers.

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: December 2000

                               Financial
Terminal                   %  Yr to date        %                   %
Passengers    Month   Change  Apr-Dec 00   Change    (a)Year   Change
(000's)                                                 2000

Heathrow    4,756.6      7.5    50,186.2      4.1   64,266.3      3.7
Gatwick     2,057.7     12.8    25,892.1      6.2   31,935.6      5.0
Stansted      866.3     31.1     9,703.6     25.2   11,854.3     25.8
London
Area Total  7,680.6     11.2    85,781.9      6.8  108,056.2      6.1
Southampton    60.7     16.5       683.9     14.8      855.6     13.9
Glasgow       422.8      7.8     5,641.9      2.6    6,923.0      2.4
Edinburgh     398.6     15.2     4,358.7      6.8    5,493.2      8.0
Aberdeen      192.2      8.8     1,952.0      2.3    2,480.8      1.0
Scottish
Total       1,013.6     10.8    11,952.5      4.0   14,896.9      4.2
BAA Total   8,754.9     11.2    98,418.4      6.5  123,808.7      6.0


                              Financial
Air Transport              %  Yr to date        %                   %
Movements     Month   Change  Apr-Dec 00   Change    (a)Year   Change
                                                        2000

Heathrow     36,106      1.0     347,557      1.6    459,703      2.3
Gatwick      18,378      1.2     195,870      2.7    252,531      2.5
Stansted     10,841      4.0     113,393      6.4    146,497      7.9
London
Area Total   65,325      1.5     656,820      2.7    858,731      3.3
Southampton   1,982     10.4      21,640     13.8     27,857     11.1
Glasgow       6,203      1.5      68,638      1.9     88,732      2.8
Edinburgh     6,750      4.2      66,779      2.9     87,917      5.2
Aberdeen      6,737      8.9      62,714      1.7     81,262     -0.6
Scottish
Total        19,690      4.9     198,131      2.2    257,911      2.5
BAA Total    86,997      2.5     876,591      2.9  1,144,499      3.3


                              Financial
Cargo                      %  Yr to date        %                   %
(Metric       Month   Change  Apr-Dec 00   Change    (a)Year   Change
Tonnes)                                                 2000

Heathrow    104,479     -5.9     990,305      1.3  1,307,079      3.3
Gatwick      26,672      1.1     242,094      6.6    319,636      8.5
Stansted     13,887      4.6     129,095     -1.0    168,695     -6.1
London
Area Total  145,038     -3.8   1,361,494      2.0  1,795,410      3.2
Southampton      36    -40.0         206    -59.4        257    -62.2
Glasgow         528    -15.7       7,177     -7.7      8,819     -2.7
Edinburgh     1,382    -12.9      13,578     -2.9     18,094      0.4
Aberdeen        343    -14.5       3,450     -2.5      4,525     -1.6
Scottish
Total         2,253    -13.8      24,205     -4.3     31,438     -0.8
BAA Total   147,327     -3.9   1,385,905      1.9  1,827,105      3.1

Notes:

    (a) The calendar year January 2000 to December 2000
    Above data excludes Air Taxi passengers and Air Taxi movements


                   Market Comparison: December 2000

                      BAA Total        BAA Total
Market                   Dec 99           Dec 00           % Change
                         (000s)           (000s)

Domestic                  1,528            1,729               13.2
Eire                        401              416                3.8
European Scheduled        2,888            3,173                9.9
European Charter(b)         460              517               12.4
North Atlantic            1,270            1,386                9.1
Other Long Haul           1,328            1,534               15.5

Total                     7,875            8,755               11.2


              Market Comparison: Full Calendar Year 2000

                      BAA Total        BAA Total
Market               Jan-Dec 99       Jan-Dec 00           % Change
                          (000s)           (000s)

Domestic                 20,875           21,596                3.5
Eire                      5,894            5,982                1.5
European Scheduled       41,061           44,670                8.8
European Charter(b)      12,736           13,037                2.4
North Atlantic           19,353           20,149                4.1
Other Long Haul          16,936           18,375                8.5

Total                   116,854          123,809                6.0

    (b) 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.