Heathrow airport suffered a marked fall in passenger traffic last month as a direct result of the two terrorist attacks on London, the operator of Britain's network of airports said this morning.

The British Airports Authority said Heathrow was the only one of its airports where passenger volumes fell in July. The number of travellers fell by 0.6 per cent to just under 6.5 million for the month.

Gatwick and Stansted, the two other airports closest to London both saw passenger levels increase - to nearly 3.6 million and 2.2 million plane travellers respectively.

BAA also said that the number of flights both in and out of Heathrow fell, compared with a rise in every other airport nationwide, in part due to capacity constraints in what is traditionally a boom month for holidaymakers.

"The rate of growth of BAA's London airports was impacted by the London bombings. In addition, capacity constraints in this peak month reduced the ability of Heathrow to accomodate true demand growth," BAA said. "Heathrow recorded a 0.6 per cent decline, while Gatwick and Stansted registered increases of 3.3 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively."

Shares in BAA slipped 2p to 609.5p.

Despite the defiant mood among London's commuters following two successive bomb attacks in July, the capital's retailers have already reported a fall in shoppers and tourist traffic as a direct result of the terror threat.

Although the long-term financial impact of the attacks is estimated by economists to be minimal, the knock-on effect on consumer confidence has yet to be fully established.

BAA revealed the passenger fall at Heathrow as it reported record traffic volumes overall at its seven airports. Some 14.6 million passengers passed through the airports in July, a 2.6 per cent increase on the same month last year.

North Atlantic traffic rose by 1 per cent and other long haul passenger numbers grew by 7.5 per cent.

The total number of travellers using BAA's airports rose by 2.6 per cent to nearly 14.6 million people.

Southampton airport experienced dramatic growth, increasing passenger volumes by more than 30 per cent and raising the number of flights by more than a quarter to 4,226 for the month.

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