GLASGOW Airport has enjoyed its busiest January on record, with passenger numbers up by 13.5 per cent on the same month of 2015.
Both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports enjoyed strong year-on-year rises in international passenger numbers in January.
Glasgow Airport said that it had welcomed 551,177 passengers last month, amid strong demand for new services to European cities such as Milan in Italy and Bucharest in Romania.
Its international passenger numbers in January totalled 251,449, up by 17.6 per cent on the same month of last year.
Glasgow Airport, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary year, also cited strong demand for Emirates’ Dubai service and the addition of capacity by Aer Lingus on its Dublin route.
Domestic passenger numbers at Glasgow Airport last month, at 299,728, were up by 10.2 per cent on January 2015.
The airport cited demand for services between Glasgow and London operated by British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair. It also flagged the popularity of new Flybe services to Exeter and Cardiff.
Glasgow Airport achieved a 13 per cent rise in passenger numbers to more than 8.7 million in 2015. This was its busiest year since 2007.
The airport has also been named as one of the fastest-growing in Europe by trade body ACI Europe.
Glasgow Airport is projecting record annual passenger numbers, in excess of nine million, this year.
Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said: “After being named one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe in 2015, it is a huge achievement for us to start our 50th anniversary year with yet another month of double-digit [percentage] growth.
“We anticipate 2016 will be our busiest year on record, welcoming nine million passengers through our doors for the first time.”
She added: “As well as celebrating 50 years of serving Scotland, our focus for 2016 is to ensure we continue to build on the success of last year, where we secured 30 new routes.”
Edinburgh Airport said that its passenger numbers in January totalled 700,142, up by 11.4 per cent on the same month of last year.
Its international passenger numbers last month were up by 21.7 per cent on January 2015, at 342,540.
Edinburgh Airport noted that this was the fastest year-on-year increase in passenger numbers in any month since January 2008.
Its domestic passenger numbers last month were up by 3.1 per cent on a year earlier at 357,602.
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: “We are continuing to offer greater choice with more routes and more destinations, and passengers are responding by flying in and out of Edinburgh directly in greater numbers than ever before. “
He added: “People ask me how much more Edinburgh Airport can grow in a country with little over five million people. It is not the five million I am worried about, but how the other seven billion across the globe get to visit us.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel