ALL three of Scotland's biggest airports saw a rise in passenger numbers last month, new figures show.
Edinburgh Airport led the way with a 7.4% year-on-year rise from 843,929 to 906,000 making it the busiest May on record at the site.
That was driven by an 11.8% rise in international traffic helped by new easyJet and Ryanair routes to destinations including Bologna, Hamburg and Reykjavik.
Domestic passengers grew by 2.7% to 415,899 led by the British Airways and new Virgin Atlantic Little Red services to Heathrow.
Gordon Dewar, Edinburgh Airport chief executive, was confident the performance could be maintained throughout the summer.
He said: "The increase in domestic traffic is particularly pleasing in what is an incredibly competitive marketplace."
At Glasgow Airport there was a near 1% increase in passengers to almost 665,000.
Domestically there was said to be strong demand for routes to London as well as on Flybe's UK regional service.
In the international market the Lufthansa service to Dusseldorf in Germany and Wizz Air's flights to Warsaw and Gdansk in Poland contributed towards a 15% increase in scheduled flights to the European Union.
Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said: "We have been working closely with our airline partners to introduce new routes and add capacity on existing services and our efforts have been reflected in the increase in passenger numbers."
Aberdeen International Airport recorded a 3.1% rise in passenger numbers from 297,000 to 306,000.
Domestic traffic was up by 4.7%, international 1.2% and helicopter passengers increased by 0.9%.
Nick Barton, managing director, said: "While these numbers show growth, they are artificially masking what remains a very challenging market.
"The ongoing issues with the helicopter fleet will remain in place until all the operators are confident the safety issue has been resolved. This will continue to adversely affect our market for the foreseeable future."
l Edinburgh has just been voted the best European airport carrying between five million and 10 million passengers for the third year in a row by Airport Council International Europe.
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