EDINBURGH Airport is celebrating the first November in which it has exceeded one million passengers, as it continues to achieve strong growth.

The airport said yesterday that its passenger numbers totalled 1,045,708 last month, up by 11.7 per cent on the same month of last year. Both domestic and international passenger numbers were up by 11.7% year-on-year in November.

Domestic passenger numbers totalled 475,694 last month. And Edinburgh Airport handled 570,014 international passengers in November.

Explaining the rise in international passenger numbers, Edinburgh Airport noted that 22 new routes had been launched since November last year.

It highlighted a raft of new Ryanair routes, including services to Seville, Tallinn, Berlin Schoenefeld, Stockholm Skavsta, Lisbon, Memmingen, Sofia and Riga.

Edinburgh Airport also noted that Air France was using a bigger plane than last year, and pointed to the launch of new services to Beijing with Hainan Airlines and to Dubai with Emirates.

On the domestic front, Edinburgh Airport noted Ryanair had paused its Stansted service from the Scottish capital last winter.

It added: “This winter the service is running fully and with an additional daily frequency.”

Edinburgh Airport also observed that Flybe, Loganair, British Airways and Ryanair were flying fuller planes than last year.

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said: “These figures show we continue to play a crucial role in Scotland’s economy.”