GLASGOW and Edinburgh airports both enjoyed their busiest-ever month in July, on the back of surging international traffic, the latest figures show.
Passenger numbers at Glasgow last month were up by 6.2 per cent on July 2016 at
1.082 million. Edinburgh’s July passenger numbers totalled 1.41 million, up by 6.1 per cent on the same month of last year.
International passenger numbers at Glasgow Airport in July totalled 700,808, up by 10.1 per cent on the same month of last year. Domestic passenger numbers last month were down by 0.2 per cent on July 2016, at 381,239.
Glasgow Airport said long-haul routes, including Emirates’ Dubai flights, Delta Air Lines’ New York JFK route and Virgin Atlantic’s direct Orlando service, had reported “particularly strong demand”.
It added passenger numbers on scheduled services to and from other European Union countries in July were up 14 per cent year-on-year on the back of additional capacity on routes including Alicante, Palma and Dusseldorf.
The airport highlighted the popularity of city breaks to destinations including Berlin, Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Madrid and Paris. And it flagged the large numbers of travellers heading to European sunshine destinations for summer holidays.
Glasgow Airport said it had recorded its busiest day of the year so far on July 14, when about 40,000 passengers passed through the terminal.
International passenger numbers at Edinburgh Airport in July totalled 934,731, up by 8.6 per cent on the same month of last year.
The airport noted that domestic passenger numbers, at 478,541, were up by 1.4 per cent on July 2016.
It pointed out 19 new international routes had launched from Edinburgh Airport in 2017, including Porto with Ryanair, Bilbao with easyJet, Thessaloniki with Jet2, Rhodes with Thomson, Palma with British Airways, Athens with Aegean, and services to the US with Norwegian.
Aberdeen International Airport, which has been hit hard by the oil and gas sector
downturn in recent years, continued to enjoy improving fortunes in July.
Its passenger numbers last month, at 301,089, were up by 2.7 per cent on July 2016.
The airport noted an 8.6 per cent year-on-year fall in helicopter passenger numbers in July had been less steep than in previous months.
Fixed-wing aircraft passenger numbers were up by 4.3 per cent year-on-year in July, with domestic traffic up 6.3 per cent and
international volumes showing an increase of 1.2 per cent.
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