Increase in passenger numbers at Aberdeen International Airport

Aberdeen International Airport has seen an increase in both domestic and international passengers.

Almost 252,000 people travelled through its doors last month.

Domestic and international traffic was up 2% and 0.5% respectively, due partly to the introduction of a number of new routes, namely Ryanair’s direct flights to Malaga and Alicante and Flybe’s new Heathrow service. Helicopter traffic was down 17.4%.

In recent weeks the airport has further expanded its route network with the launch of Air Baltic’s direct summer service to the Latvian capital of Riga and a third new summer route new from Ryanair to Faro.

Carol Benzie, managing director of Aberdeen International Airport, said: “It is extremely encouraging to see our international and domestic traffic perform well. We have added nine new routes over the course of the past year and this has contributed to us seeing a slow but steady increase in fixed wing passengers.

“Last month our route development team attended the annual Routes Europe conference in Belfast along with more than 100 airlines and we have received encouraging feedback which we will follow-up on. I believe there remains a real opportunity for leisure and city break capacity at Aberdeen. We have demonstrated that with strong performance on the routes that we’ve launched over the past 12 months and we’ll continue to present our business cases.

“We are also making real progress on our terminal redevelopment works and the initial phase of our new international arrivals area will open on 30th May, just over two weeks’ away. The work we have been carrying out will have a transformational effect on the airport and it will ultimately provide passengers, airlines and the city with an airport they can all be proud of.”