GLASGOW Airport has achieved its busiest-ever June, handling nearly 950,000 passengers, but Aberdeen saw another sharp year-on-year fall in traveller numbers.
The 4.4 per cent year-on-year rise in overall passenger numbers at Glasgow Airport in June resulted from increases in both domestic and international traffic.
Glasgow Airport, which is owned by the Ferrovial and Macquarie-backed AGS Airports, highlighted strong demand for scheduled flights to destinations within the European Union. It cited this as evidence of the success of its strategy to strengthen European connectivity.
It also noted that British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair had all reported an increase in demand for their London services.
Glasgow Airport handled 385,840 domestic passengers in June - 3.2 per cent more than in the same month of last year.
It achieved a 5.2 per cent year-on-year rise in international passenger numbers to 560,475 in June.
In the context of the rise in international traffic, managing director Amanda McMillan also highlighted the airport’s success in strengthening its long-haul connections.
She said: “June is traditionally one of our busiest months of the year, with the arrival of the school holidays, and last month saw an unprecedented number of passengers choose to start their holiday from Glasgow Airport.
“From a route development perspective, we continued to strengthen our long-haul connectivity when we welcomed Air Canada Rouge on board and Delta Air Lines also confirmed it will introduce direct flights between Glasgow and New York-JFK in May 2017.”
Ms McMillan meanwhile highlighted continuing progress with the airport’s £25 million terminal redevelopment programme, noting the arrival of luxury fragrance retailer Jo Malone and plans by a number of “leading restaurant brands” to open outlets over coming weeks.
She added that work was under way on a new, consolidated car-rental facility.
Aberdeen International Airport, which is also part of AGS Airports, recorded an 11.9 per cent year-on-year fall in passenger numbers to 285,555 in June as the oil and gas sector’s woes continued to weigh heavily on the north-east economy.
Its domestic passenger numbers on fixed-wing aircraft were down by 15.6 per cent on the same month of last year at 152,546 in June. International passenger numbers fell by 5.5 per cent year-on-year to 93,370 in June.
Meanwhile, helicopter passenger numbers, at 39,639 in June, were 11.4 per cent lower than a year earlier.
Carol Benzie, managing director of Aberdeen International Airport, flagged the effect of economic weakness but also highlighted success in attracting airlines and winning new routes.
She said: “Whilst the performance of the wider economy is continuing to have a direct impact on passenger numbers, our route development team is working hard to attract new routes and airlines to the city.
“Last week’s welcome announcement from Ryanair, which will introduce twice-weekly, year-round services to Alicante and Malaga next year, is a tremendous boost for the airport and our passengers. It follows the launch earlier this year of Wizz Air’s direct service to Warsaw and Icelandair’s Reykjavik route, both of which are performing extremely well.”
Edinburgh Airport on Monday reported that it had achieved a 6.8 per cent year-on-year rise in passenger numbers to 1.17 million in June. It noted this was the busiest-ever June for a Scottish airport.
It achieved a 15.1 per cent year-on-year rise in international passenger numbers to 715,639 in June. However, its domestic passenger numbers, at 458,314 last month, were down by 3.9 per cent on June 2015.
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