EDINBURGH Airport achieved a near-10 per cent year-on-year rise in passenger numbers in January, with both domestic and international traffic showing strong increases, the latest figures show.
The airport said yesterday that it had handled 920,474 passengers last month, up 9.9% on January 2018. It noted this was its busiest-ever January.
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International passenger numbers, at 526,490 in January, were up by 9.6% on the opening month of last year. Domestic passenger numbers last month totalled 393,984, up by 10.4% on January 2018.
The airport had a record year in 2018, handling 14.3 million passengers.
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Among the factors driving year-on-year growth in domestic passenger numbers in January was the re-starting by Ryanair of its Stansted route, Edinburgh Airport noted. The airport also cited increased frequencies of flights on the London City route by both BA Cityflyer and Flybe last month, compared with January 2018.
Edinburgh Airport attributed the year-on-year jump in international passenger numbers in January to route launches. It noted 22 international routes had been launched last year, including Emirates’ daily service to Dubai. Ryanair has launched a raft of new European routes from Edinburgh.
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Gordon Dewar, chief executive of the airport, said: “To see growth in both our domestic and international market is encouraging. The international and domestic routes we delivered last year are proving popular and we have announced further new routes this year which we are confident will maintain our strong numbers.”
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