BAA, the airport group, is confident that its passenger traffic will continue to grow “robustly” – despite the current global political uncertainty.

Reporting its full year results to 31 March, the group announced that profit before tax was slightly up at £539m – compared to £538m the year before.

BAA’s good form was largely down to a 4.4 per cent increase in passenger traffic, pushing up the amount of people flying from its airports to 133.4 million.

Mike Clasper, chief executive, said: “Looking forward, although the political outlook is likely to remain precarious, we believe that passenger traffic growth will continue as the UK economy strengthens, along with those of key regions such as North America and Asia.

“We confirm our forecast of more than 6 per cent growth in passenger traffic at our UK airports this year.”