THE managing director of Glasgow Airport has declared she would not relish having to focus on handling a UK exit from the European Union rather than on pushing the business forward.

Amanda McMillan, who underlined hopes of achieving record passenger numbers this year as £25 million is invested in Glasgow Airport, flagged major growth in long-haul flights from the European Union and in traffic within the EU since the single market came into force in 1993.

She also emphasised the importance to Glasgow Airport of securing further “hub connections” in mainland Europe to provide more options for passengers in terms of onward flights. Ms McMillan underlined hopes of building on the return of Air France to Glasgow - a service which enables passengers to transfer to onward flights through Paris - by gaining further hub connections in the likes of Germany and Belgium.

Ms McMillan meanwhile highlighted the fact that much of the regulation of the sector came from the EU, noting areas such as ground-handling, slot allocation at congested airports, and air traffic management. The EU also deals with air passenger rights, and airport charges. And airport staff are covered by the EU Working Time Directive.

On the question of how Glasgow Airport would cope in the event of a vote for the UK to leave the EU, in the June 23 referendum, Ms McMillan said: “With these referendums, the devil is in the detail…We have a significant amount of regulation and compliance that is borne out of being a member of the EU.

“One would imagine our industry would face significant change.”

She added: “It certainly couldn’t be handled in anything other than a very detailed, phased approach. It isn’t something I would relish – as leader of the business – that I would be focusing on that rather than pushing the business forward.”

She emphasised that Glasgow Airport, which is owned by the Ferrovial and Macquarie-backed AGS Airports, did not take political stances.

However, Ms McMillan said: “Setting aside any wider political debate, just looking at our industry, the statistics would suggest being part of the EU would benefit European air travel.

“Those statistics say to you the industry is certainly not broken from being a member of the EU – therefore we don’t see anything that needs fixed.”

Glasgow Airport noted that, since the European single market came into force, the number of intra-European flights had more than doubled.

It added that there had been a 150 per cent increase in long-haul flights departing from EU airports. And it noted that EU expansion had led to more routes, citing as an example a trebling of the number of UK to Poland flights since Poland joined the EU in 2004.

Glasgow Airport, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, achieved its biggest-ever percentage increase in annual passenger numbers during 2015.

And Ms McMillan is targeting the airport’s busiest-ever year in 2016 by exceeding its current record high of 8.83 million for annual passenger numbers, which was achieved back in 2006 ahead of the financial crisis and subsequent deep recession.

The airport’s passenger numbers totalled 8.71 million in 2015, up by 13 per cent on the prior year.

Ms McMillan highlighted the fact that the airport was investing about £25m this year.

This investment is being made in extending the main terminal building and creating more retail and lounge space to accommodate increased passenger numbers, and in resurfacing the runway at a cost of about £10m.

Ms McMillan said: “It should improve the ambience. It should improve the facilities. As we grow, it is an essential part of our growth strategy because we need more space in the lounge for increased passenger numbers.”

She added: “We think this year we will get into record territory, which is lovely in our 50th year. At the moment, we are building the plan towards the 10 million number. You never stop in this game.”

Ms McMillan attributed the growth in passenger numbers at Glasgow to both economic recovery and business development efforts.

She noted passenger numbers on Emirates’ services between Glasgow and Dubai were greater now than before the recession.

And Ms McMillan highlighted the various Eastern European routes attracted by Glasgow Airport in recent times.

She added: “Clearly, there is an economic recovery aspect. There is also a business development aspect. We have secured new dots on the map, which inspires people to travel.”

And she highlighted the benefits to the Scottish economy of increasing the airport’s “connectivity”.

Ms McMillan said: “The more connections we have got - the more dots on the map you are linked to – the better off Scotland is. We need air travel to be successful.”

Welcoming the return of Air France, she said that Glasgow Airport had felt that Paris had been a “missing hub link” for it, although she also highlighted easyJet’s direct flights to the French capital.

Ms McMillan added: “There is an absolute case for hub connectivity. Again, because of our geographical position in Scotland, we do need greater hub connectivity..

“We would still like a German hub connection.”

She also noted huge numbers of searches on flight search engine Skyscanner for flights between Glasgow and Brussels, highlighting the Belgian capital as another desired hub connection.

Ms McMillan meanwhile highlighted Glasgow Airport’s drive to attract more visitors to Scotland.

She said: “We are trying to leverage the success of Glasgow the city, and also the message that Glasgow is a great gateway to Scotland.”

Ms McMillan meanwhile welcomed progress towards establishing a rail link between Glasgow Airport and Glasgow city centre. The proposed £144m rail link, backed by City deal funding, is due to be completed around 2024.