The continuing rise in budget airline flights boosted passenger numbers at the UK's leading airports last month, it was disclosed today.

Airport operator BAA handled 12.5 million passengers at its seven British airports in October 2004 - 5.2% more than in October 2003.

A 6.8% rise in European scheduled traffic, helped by the popularity of low-fare carriers, more than compensated for capacity cuts by British Airways that limited passenger increases at Heathrow airport to 2.1% last month.

Southampton passenger numbers were up 16.6%, while Gatwick and Stansted both enjoyed 8% increases.

Glasgow rose 8.4%, Edinburgh increased 7.1% and Aberdeen was up 4.7%. There were increases last month on all sectors save European charter traffic which dipped 0.3% compared with October 2003 - a much-improved performance on the summer months which showed bigger losses.

Domestic passenger numbers last month rose 2.4%, Irish traffic increased 3.8%, European scheduled was 6.8% up and North Atlantic rose 5%. Traffic on other long-haul routes, excluding the Atlantic, increased 9.8%.

The seven BAA airports handled more than 139 million passengers in the 12 months ending October 2004 - a 7.3% increase on the 12 months ending October 2003.