GLASGOW Airport turned in an impressive performance in November, with year-on-year growth in passenger numbers of nearly 12 per cent, the latest monthly figures show.

Domestic and international passenger numbers both showed strong year-on-year gains, with much of these advances attributable to budget airline Ryanair's recent launch of seven routes from Glasgow.

Most of these Ryanair services were transferred from Prestwick International Airport, which was rescued by the Scottish Government in November last year after previous owner Infratil failed to find a private sector buyer.

Glasgow Airport noted, as its latest monthly passenger figures were published yesterday, that it had this year secured 20 new routes and services.

New routes are defined as destinations to which there have been no direct flights in the past. Other new services would take in the launch of flights by a carrier to a destination to which another airline already flies from Glasgow.

There is no doubting that this total of 20 new routes and services, which includes the raft of Ryanair flights, is pretty impressive.

Last month, Lufthansa confirmed it would introduce direct flights from Glasgow to the German city of Munich in May next year.

Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook have both announced plans to operate direct flights from Glasgow to Las Vegas next year. And Thomas Cook has announced it will fly direct from Glasgow to two new destinations in Cuba.

WestJet has meanwhile announced its plans to launch a direct service from Glasgow to Nova Scotia in Canada.

And easyJet has already started a new route to Marrakesh in Morocco.

Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, is understandably enthusiastic about the airport's recent successes in winning more direct routes. The plethora of new routes and services will obviously be good for Glasgow and the surrounding area, and should provide a boost to the Scottish economy as a whole.

Glasgow Airport is, also understandably, making much of Ryanair's arrival. Ryanair, which launched its new base at the airport on October 26, is already flying from Glasgow to Stansted, Dublin and Derry, as well as to Riga in Latvia, and Warsaw Modlin, Wroclaw and Bydgoszcz in Poland. And it has announced plans to start flights to Carcassone in France and Chania on the Greek island of Crete next summer.

The Ryanair move into Glasgow helped the airport achieve respective 18.3 per cent and 7.7 per cent rises in its overall international and domestic passenger numbers in November.

In all, 335,523 domestic and 238,857 international passengers went through the doors of Glasgow Airport last month.

And the overall 11.8 per cent year-on-year rise in passenger numbers at Glasgow in November was way ahead of a corresponding 3.1 per cent increase at Edinburgh.

While the strong performance at Glasgow in November was not just down to Ryanair, the airport described the impact of the Irish budget airline's arrival as "huge".

However, on this note, we should not forget how important Ryanair was to Prestwick Airport, and the impact of the budget carrier's big moves into Glasgow and Edinburgh on the Ayrshire economy.

While passenger numbers at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen have been showing consistent year-on-year growth in recent times, and the Scottish capital's airport has been hitting records, we are, on the west coast, a long way from the days before the financial crisis when Prestwick appeared to benefit because Glasgow was so busy.

However, it is important not just to Ayrshire but to the broader Scottish economy and to air travellers north of the Border that every effort is made to rebuild Prestwick's business. And we should not overlook the economic importance of the aerospace industry cluster around Prestwick Airport.

US billionaire Donald Trump gave Prestwick a much-needed boost last month when he unveiled plans to transform the embattled airport into a hub for the world's super-rich, with "hundreds of private jets" bringing golf fans to Ayrshire. Mr Trump is investing big in golf in Ayrshire, having unveiled plans for a £250 million revamp of his Turnberry resort.

Mr Trump has struck a deal with bosses at Prestwick to run flights to and from the airport on the Trump Organisation's fleet of private jets, including his own luxury, converted Boeing 757 aircraft.

These plans are a high-profile start to rebuilding Prestwick but far more must be done to ensure the airport's survival.

Mr Trump appeared to provide some further hope last month when he declared he had also had a "long telephone conversation" with Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary, which encouraged him to believe the airline would be "coming back in a big way" at the airport. In this context, however, we should not forget it is in Mr O'Leary's interests to keep airports chasing after his airline's business.

The Scottish Government has highlighted the potential for freight traffic at Prestwick, and even talked about the airport, with its ultra-long runway, being a future spaceport.

But the huge numbers of Scottish residents who get in their cars and board trains, buses and planes to fly abroad on holiday from English airports suggests that there is plenty of scope for Prestwick to increase its passenger numbers without causing Glasgow any significant turbulence.