Glasgow Airport tops the one million passenger mark in July

The annual summer getaway saw passenger numbers top one million mark at Glasgow Airport last month.

Published 11th Aug 2016

The annual summer getaway saw passenger numbers top one million mark at Glasgow Airport last month.

The Open Championship golf at Troon is being tipped for helping it achieve a 6.4% boost to a total of 1,018,433 passengers.

Domestic traffic at Glasgow increased by 1.8% as both easyJet and Flybe increased their capacity and the airport saw a 9.4% surge in international passenger numbers.

Managing director Amanda McMillan said: "July is traditionally our busiest month but to exceed the one million passenger mark is yet another significant achievement for Glasgow Airport in a year filled with milestones.

"Our strong performance in 2016 is a reflection of our continued efforts to enhance existing services and in attracting new routes such as this month's in-bound Korean Air charter flights - Scotland's first direct air link with South Korean capital Seoul.

"Route development continues to be a key priority in driving growth at the airport."

Edinburgh also reported the busiest-ever month at a Scottish airport after seeing 1,332,282 travellers through its doors - an increase of 9.6 % on the same month last year.

Edinburgh said an 18.5% increase in international passengers was mainly due to new routes launched in the last year, including easyJet's Stuttgart, Vienna and Venice services.

Domestic traffic was down 3.6%.

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said: "We are greatly encouraged to have smashed another record at Edinburgh Airport, with July being the busiest-ever passenger month at a Scottish airport.

"While we welcome this growth, it underlines the work we are doing at Edinburgh Airport to adapt and accommodate the ever-increasing number of people wanting to fly in and out of Scotland's capital city.

"The trend of expanding international passengers continues - and with a growing proportion of inbound passengers we are helping drive tourism, economic development and additional job creation in Scotland.

"European airports' growth for the first half of the year is at 4.9% - our growth over the same six-month period compared to the last year is more than double that."

In contrast, Aberdeen Airport reported a 15.9% drop in July passenger numbers to 293,136.

International and domestic traffic was down 8.4% and 18.7% respectively, and helicopter traffic decreased 22.3% amid the current downturn in the oil and gas industry.

Managing director Carol Benzie said: "July was a month of mixed fortunes.

"Whilst our figures continue to reflect the performance of the wider economy, we enjoyed further success in strengthening our route network with the news Ryanair will return to Aberdeen.

"Flybe, Icelandair, Thomson and Wizz Air have all launched new services in recent months and our route development team will continue to use the feedback we received from our passenger survey to encourage more airlines to add capacity."