BAA, an airport operator, on Monday reported that Heathrow handled 6.6m passengers in August 2011, an increase of 0.7% year-on-year, resulting in the airport's busiest ever August.

The group's UK airports handled 10.7m passengers in August 2011, an increase of 0.2% on August last year. All markets grew except UK domestic, which fell by 5.5% as a result of reduced capacity, the group said. At BAA Group level the number of air transport movements decreased by 0.2%. For the fifth time in the last six months there was a reduction in air cargo tonnage at BAA's airports. This is said to be consistent with wider air cargo industry trends as the growth in world trade decelerates.