PASSENGER numbers at Glasgow Airport are among the fastest growing in Europe, according to the latest industry data for the continent.
The airport, which handled nearly four million passengers in the first six months of 2015, was the only UK airport outside of London to be listed in the ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report.
The report covers all airport sizes and types of airlines, including chartered, legacy and low cost.
Glasgow Airport was ranked the third fastest growing behind Milan Bergamo and Porto among the 'Group 3' hubs - airports which handle 5-10 million passengers per year.
Between January and the end of June this year 3,958,094 people passed through Glasgow Airport, up 13.8 per cent on the same six month period in 2014.
The six month period has coincided with the launch of a string of new routes from Glasgow, including Scotland's first regular service to Las Vegas in May, operated by Thomas Cook, and the UK's first ever flights with Canadian carrier, WestJet, whose Glasgow-Nova Scotia flights have been a big attraction.
It also comes after Glasgow Airport recorded its busiest June on record last month, with nearly 906,000 passengers.
Next month will also see the first of four Virgin Atlantic services to Las Vegas take off from Glasgow, with Thomas Cook launching chartered flights to Cancun and Barbados from November, and Glasgow's first ever direct flights to Milan commencing in December, operated by easyJet.
London Gatwick and Stansted were the only other UK airports ranked among the fastest growing in 2015, with respectively 5.4 and 16.9 per cent year-on-year passenger growth for the first six months of 2015.
Overall, the report found that EU-based airports had overtaken non-EU airports in terms of passenger growth.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe, said: “The first half of this year has seen solid passenger traffic growth for the European airport industry. However, where as recently as 18 months ago Non-EU airports were propping up weaker passenger traffic growth at EU airports, we are now through the looking glass.
"The situation has flipped and EU airports now lead the growth – reporting +5.1 per cent during the first half of the year, compared with +2.3 per cent at Non-EU airports.”
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