South Coast Airports See Rise In Passengers

12 May 2011, 10:51 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Two of the South's airports say they've seen a big rise in passenger numbers this year.

They went up by more than 18% at Southampton and 19% at Bournemouth last month, compared to April last year.

It's thought it was partly down to the Royal Wedding bank holiday, and also problems with the volcanic ash cloud last year.

Britain's biggest airport, Heathrow, had its busiest-ever April last month, according to the new figures.

It handled more than 5.8 million passengers in April 2011, airport operator BAA said.

Overall, BAA's six UK airports handled 9.1 million passengers in April 2011 - more than 31% up on the April 2010 total which was badly affected by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud crisis.