Business flyers give Heathrow a record September

Heathrow airport has just had its busiest September ever, as business passengers resumed flying to the fastest-growing economies in the world.

BAA, the airport's owner, said there were big increases in those flying to three out of the four BRIC countries — Brazi, Russia, India and China — last month.

Numbers going to Brazil rose by 27%, Russia by 23% and China by 10%. Only India saw a fall with a marginal decline of 0.3%.

Geneva, Rome and Dubai were the destinations with the biggest increase in passengers.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, said: "Heathrow's record September figures underline the fact that transport links are vital to our economy.

"The growth reflects an improved outlook for our airline customers and an increase in business confidence, as shown by cargo figures which continue to outperform the pre-recession peak," he added.

Heathrow airport handled 6.2 million passengers last month — an increase of 7.6% compared with a year ago and only slightly down on August's 6.5 million in the busiest holiday month.

But the group's other major London airport, Stansted, continued to see a decline in passenger numbers as low-cost airlines like Ryanair cut flights.

Stannsted handled 1.8 million passengers — a reduction of 4.3% on a year ago.

At Heathrow, a number of airlines have reinstated flights which they had taken off the schedules during the recession.

Across all BAA airports passenger numbers rose 3.3% to just short of 10 million passengers.