PASSENGER numbers at Dundee Airport fell by 43 per cent in the year to the end of March after operator Flybe axed its route from the city to Amsterdam, writes Margaret Taylor.
The number of people using the airport, which is one of 11 operated by Scottish Government-owned Highlands and Islands Airports, dropped from 38,700 in 2016/17 to 21,909 in 2017/18.
Wick was the only other airport in the Highlands and Islands Airports stable to see a contraction in numbers, with its figures falling by 17% to 19,797.
Overall, passenger numbers across the company’s airports increased by 7% to 1.8 million while Shetland’s Sumburgh Airport experienced the fastest growth of any single site.
Having served 355,667 passengers in the previous year, Sumburgh handled 419,448 customers in 2017/18, representing a rise of 18%.
In welcoming the figures, Highlands and Islands Airports managing director Inglis Lyon said overall growth had been dented by a number of airports being forced to close as a result of the bad weather at the start of this year.
He added that despite that “the past year has been another of significant growth in passenger figures” across the Highlands and Islands Airports group.
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