Passenger traffic at BAA airports rose slightly last month compared to March 2010, helped by the popularity of flights to China and India from London's Heathrow and growth at its three Scottish airports.

BAA, majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, on Monday said 8.27 million passengers flew from its UK airports last month compared with 8.19 million in March 2010 when volumes were affected by British Airways strikes.

Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, served 5.33 million passengers, up 2.3 percent.

"The valuable trading connections to India and mainland China continue to see strong growth (from Heathrow), which suggests improving economic circumstances and the increasing importance of these economies," said BAA chief executive Colin Matthews.

The airport operator said the Heathrow-New York route continued to be the world's most popular transcontinental route with more than 3.6 million passengers flying from Heathrow to New York in the last year.

March 2011 saw an average of one departure an hour from Heathrow to New York during the day and one every 15 minutes during peak evening hours, BAA said.

BAA's Scottish airports recorded a 5.8 percent increase against the same month last year but traffic at London's Stansted airport was down 7.4 percent on last year, while Southampton in the south of England fell 8.7 percent.

"In the UK, consumer confidence remains fragile, affecting airports up and down the country. Continued rises in the price of oil are a concern for airlines and passengers in all our markets," said Matthews.

IAG-owned British Airways last week said it would raise the fuel surcharge on long-haul flights, further squeezing European consumers struggling with rising inflation and wage freezes.

Industry body IATA expects global airline profits to halve this year due to the rising price of jet fuel, which will likely offset increasing demand.

Brent crude futures settled above USD$126 a barrel on Friday, the highest level in 32 months, as commodities surged due to a weaker dollar and as intense fighting in Libya raised fears of prolonged supply cuts.

BAA said traffic to the Middle East was only moderately affected by unrest in the region and that its European services continued to perform well.

Source: Reuters

An FPNA A22 Valor, soon to be represented by a new distributor...who will also, according to conflicting reports at least, also be repping the Paradise P1.  More on that as the story fleshes out.

 The day dawned foggy and solid overcast...then cleared almost instantaneously...then snap overcast again.

Tom Guttman Jr. makes a low pass for my camera.

The wind grew...and grew...the temperature dropped, and by the end of it, everyone agreed it was an unseasonally chilly day, more like San Francisco in winter than Sebring, FL.

But people flew, and flew.  Folks came out in good numbers and, according to all the exhibitors I spoke with, and that was a lot, there was focused interest and orders, or solid prospects, were recorded.

My flying fortunes started bright and early with a morning flight in the new Flight Design CTLS, thanks to Tulsa, OK Airtime Aviation dealers Tom Guttman and his son...Tom Guttman.  Makes "Hi Tom!" less of a chore, you only have to say it once.

Tom soldiers on downwind through the building chop.

These enterprising lads have finalized the fitting and testing of their Clamar floats, designed and built by famed float maker Clair Sceli, and they're beautiful to see and fun to fly on.  

We did several landings and takeoffs on nearby, wind-whipped, whitecap-popping Lake Jackson.  Solid, balanced, well-performing.  And all that extra drag only costs about 18 knots...we were showing 102 kts. indicated straight and level, full power coming back to the field. 

Tom Peghiny, Prez of Flight Design, also had a gorgeous, futuristic panel on proud display: two Dynon Skyview EFIS displays and a Garmin 696.  Gorgeous!  See for yourself... 

I'll fly the Criquet Aviation Stolp Storch 75% replica tomorrow morning.  

Some tantalizing specs in the meantime:

Span: 34.7 feet

Wing Chord: 5 feet

Aspect Ratio: 7 

Cockpit width (tandem): 28"

Baggage: 3 cu. ft./25 lbs.

Fuel capacity: 30 gal

Engine: Rotax 912 ULS 100 hp

Engine: Continental Lightweight 0-200 available soon

Photo courtesy U-Fly-It

Prop: 6 ft. Tennessee wood

Takeoff distance: 168 ft.

Rate of climb: 850 fpm

Cruise: 80 mph

VNE: 117 mph

Stall (clean): 36 mph (that's not knots, that's mph folks)

Stall (40 degrees flaps): 30 mph!!!

Landing distance: 173 ft.

And here's the nifty EFIS-1831 from Levil Aviation...yep, it's a touch screen.  Does anybody doubt, with the paradigm shift brought about by Apples iPhone and iPad, that touch screen cockpit displays are the future?

This 10.4 inch Touch Screen Computer ties in all EFIS engine and navigation monitoring functions into one MFD.

Very cool, read all about it here, I'm going to bed.