BAA profit boosted by Heathrow growth

British airport operator BAA posted a 17 per cent rise in full-year profit as it squeezed more growth from London's Heathrow even though it had to turn away airlines eager to fly to new markets from Britain's busiest airport. "Chinese airlines have come to us saying they want to add routes from Heathrow to cities in China but we have to turn them away because there's no space — the airlines can't believe it when we say no," said Colin Matthews, BAA's chief executive. "However, growth has come because there was no disruption in 2011 and thanks to aircraft sizes increasing and load factors being at record levels, which we see continuing in 2012." A plane's load factor is a measure of how full it is. The owner of Europe's busiest airport yesterday reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of £1.13 billion (Dh6.5 billion) for 2011 on revenues 10 per cent higher at £2.28 billion. BAA said Heathrow handled a record 69.4 million passengers during the year — up 5.5 per cent — compared with the previous record of 67.9 million set in 2007. Falling behind BAA, which was prevented by Britain's Conservative-led coalition government from building a third runway at Heathrow because of environmental concerns, has seen traffic to emerging markets rise in recent years but believes it is now falling behind rival European airports in the battle for these lucrative routes because of the constraints on growth. Of Heathrow's major markets, European traffic showed the most significant year on year growth, increasing 7.6 per cent. Matthews said BAA would start paying dividends to shareholders "in the range of £60 million a quarter" next year for the first time since it was acquired by a consortium led by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial in 2006.