Despite the recent bombings in London, BAA's seven UK airports handled a record 14.6m passengers in July 2005, representing a 2.6% increase against the previous year.

With the exception of the European charter market, all markets recorded gains on the previous year, with North Atlantic traffic up 1%, other long haul up 7.5%, Irish traffic plus 8% and domestic traffic up 1.4%. However, traffic to European charter markets continued to decline, falling by 5.5%.
Needless to say, the rate of growth at BAA's London airports was impacted by the London bombings. In addition, capacity constraints in this peak month reduced the ability of Heathrow to accommodate true demand growth. Heathrow traffic recorded a 0.6% decline, while Gatwick and Stansted registered increases of 3.3% and 6.1% respectively. Further afield, BAA's Scottish airports recorded a combined increase of 5.8% and with an expanded range of low cost scheduled services, Southampton recorded an increase of 30.8%.