News

Edinburgh and Glasgow airports see May traffic rise

Increased international traffic helped Edinburgh airport achieve a record May with more than 906,000 passengers handled.

Traffic was up 7.4% against the same month last year while Glasgow airport saw a 1% rise to 665,000 passengers.

Airlines have added 18 new destinations from Edinburgh since the airport was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners after the Competition Commission ruled that previous owner BAA had to sell either Edinburgh or Glasgow airport.

Edinburgh serves more than 130 destinations, with a new Toronto service due to start in July.

The airport said international traffic rose by 11.8% last month, driven by new services by easyJet and Ryanair. Domestic traffic was up by 2.7% with “strong performances” from British Airways and Virgin Atlantic’s new Little Red service to Heathrow.

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said: “When we bought Edinburgh airport in June last year, we were very clear about the issues we faced and how we were going to tackle them.

“The team here has put in a tremendous amount of work and in May we saw all of that work bear fruit.

“The increase in domestic traffic is particularly pleasing in what is an incredibly competitive marketplace.”

Glasgow airport said popular services to Dusseldorf, Warsaw and Gdansk had contributed to a 15% increase in its scheduled flights within the European Union.

Managing director Amanda McMillan said: “We have been working closely with our airline partners to introduce new routes and add capacity on existing services, and our efforts have been reflected in the continued increase in passenger numbers.

“We are now looking forward to what promises to be a busy summer season and have recruited additional members of staff to meet the extra demand.

“They will be on-hand to offer assistance to the tens of thousands of passengers who will travel through the airport in the coming weeks and to ensure their holidays get off to the best possible start.”

Share article

View Comments

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.