A record number of passengers passed through Edinburgh Airport in 2019, with the growth of international services helping drive the increase, new figures show.
The airport celebrated its busiest year in history with 14,747,830 passengers travelling through, up 3.1 per cent on 2018.
December passenger figures for 2019 were also up on the same month the previous year, rising 2.1 per cent to 1,048,945.
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The international market saw a 10.2 per cent increase on December 2018, with strong growth in the short-haul segment.
However, the domestic market was down 8.9 per cent on December 2018 after Ryanair cut the Stansted route from October 2019 and Flybe stopped operating its route to East Midlands that month.
Edinburgh Airport said it had the busiest ever year for a Scottish airport.
Chief executive Gordon Dewar said: “We’re delighted to deliver a record year for any Scottish airport as passengers continued to take advantage of new routes, new airlines and the opportunity to expand their horizons and travel the world.
“We never lose sight of the fact that the airport is a conduit to a whole host of things. We play our part in tourism, business, education, research and culture. We are that gateway to Scotland and to the world, and direct connectivity to countries across the world plays a huge part in that success.
“Clearly, we want to see that success continue to benefit Edinburgh and Scotland, and travel will always be a part of that, but we do have a responsibility to manage that success in a sustainable manner.
“We appreciate that we need to show leadership in this area and we are currently finalising a strategy which will map out our approach to operations at Edinburgh to make them even more sustainable than they already are. We look forward to sharing that strategy and engaging with our communities on it.”
While international passenger numbers rose 5.3 per cent on the previous year in 2019, domestic passenger numbers were down 0.7 per cent on 2018.
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The international market was boosted by several new routes and an increase in services last year.
They included Ryanair’s routes to Luxembourg and Bucharest, easyJet, which introduced a new route to Verona, and Wizz Air, which started four new routes to Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw and Gdansk.
Delta increased its service to JFK from five times a week to daily while Turkish Airlines did the same with its Istanbul service.
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