That's interesting as from my observations at Stansted I'd have said that traffic and fares were down. Toward the tail end of 2008 they'd retrenched the number of check in desks compared to the tail end of 2007, and queues were certainly less than I remember on a like for like basis.
The first week of the year the flights I took were barely 2/3 full when normally there's only a couple of spare seats - though we were back to full this week - and the fares I've been getting have been about 20% lower than I was paying this time last year.
But perhaps I shouldn't make judgements about the general from observations about the particular.
Paul
