Passenger boost for Scottish airports

Edinburgh was Scotland's busiest BAA air hub, with 918,900 passengers in June, a 7.6 per cent rise on the previous year.

It was the fourth consecutive month of record traffic for the capital.

An Edinburgh Airport spokesman said that the choice of direct flights was helping to drive the growth.

He said: "June's fantastic performance was driven by our ever expanding choice in leisure and holiday destinations.

"For many Scots, these direct flights offer an easy alternative to jet off to the sun or to relax on a city break.

"2011 has been a year of growth for us and we're confident that this trend will continue through a busy summer period."

The fastest growth was recorded at Aberdeen where passenger numbers rose 10.1 per cent to 287,800.

In Glasgow 702,800 people passed through the airport, a rise of 2.6 per cent on the previous year.

The three BAA airports north of the border handled 1,909,500 people in total, a 6.1 per cent rise.

Across the UK the company's six airports handled a total of 9.9 million passengers - up 4.4 per cent on the June 2010 total.

However cargo traffic continued to fall, dropping 48.5 per cent in Glasgow and 16.9 per cent in Edinburgh.

Aberdeen was the only Scottish airport to see a rise in cargo traffic, up 16 per cent on the previous year

BAA said that growth in the global air freight market continued to slow as the strong post-recession recovery phase comes to an end.