LONDON, FEB 22 (Reuters) - British airport operator BAA posted a 17 percent rise in full-year profit, helped by continued growth at London's Heathrow airport, where passenger traffic is holding up despite global economic uncertainty.
The owner of London Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, on Wednesday reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of 1.13 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) for 2011 on revenues 10 percent higher at 2.28 billion pounds.
BAA, majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, said passenger traffic across its airports rose 3.7 percent to 87.4 million. Heathrow handled a record 69.4 million passengers during the year -- up 5.5 percent -- compared with the previous record of 67.9 million set in 2007.
"Growth (at Heathrow) was particularly strong with countries such as the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France and Brazil," BAA said in a statement.
"Of Heathrow's major markets, European traffic showed the most significant year on year growth, increasing 7.6 percent to 28.5 million passengers."
In recent years BAA has reported a steady rise in traffic to emerging markets in Asia but believes it is now falling behind rival European airports in the battle for these lucrative routes because of the constraints on growth at Britain's largest airport.
BAA said Heathrow also used a record 99.2 percent of its maximum permitted annual arrivals and departures in 2011.
"This means the airport is effectively operating at full capacity, preventing airlines from developing new routes from the UK to emerging market destinations such as Manila, Shenzhen and Jakarta," the company said.
The airport operator said it had raised around 3 billion pounds of new financing in the last 12 months and that it would start paying dividends to its shareholders in 2012 for the first time since it was acquired by the Ferrovial-led consortium in 2006.
BAA profit boosted by Heathrow growth
