PASSENGER numbers at Edinburgh Airport were 4.4% higher last month than in April 2012, while Glasgow achieved a 0.4% year-on-year increase.

Aberdeen Airport, meanwhile, reported yesterday passenger numbers last month were up 3.7% on April 2012.

Glasgow Airport, owned by the LHR Airports operation known formerly as BAA, said yesterday nearly 550,000 people travelled through it in April.

It declared strong demand for domestic and long-haul travel, together with the launch in April of Lufthansa Regional's direct service to Dusseldorf in Germany, had enabled it to maintain its steady pattern of growth. It added that Wizz Air's flights to Warsaw and Gdansk in Poland, launched in March, had also continued to prove popular.

Edinburgh Airport, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, said yesterday 801,576 people had travelled through it in April. This was up by more than 34,000 on the April 2012 figure.

The airport, which noted it was Scotland's busiest, said that international traffic had brought 433,753 passengers, up 10% on a year earlier.

However, domestic figures were down by 1.4% year-on-year. Edinburgh Airport said 367,823 domestic passengers had passed through in April.

Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar highlighted the launch of new European routes from Edinburgh by budget airline easyJet, additional Ryanair flights, and the start of Virgin Atlantic's new Little Red service to London Heathrow as factors which had boosted passenger numbers in April.

He declared: "We are on course for a bumper summer season with introduction of our new summer schedule, as well as the new Air Canada Rouge service to Toronto which will launch in July."

Aberdeen Airport, part of LHR Airports, cited a 6.4% year-on-year decline in helicopter traffic in April but said this had been offset by growth in domestic and international fixed-wing passengers.