Edinburgh airport on the up but Glasgow stalls

Published on Friday 9 October 2009 22:09

THE gap in fortunes between Scotland's two busiest airports has widened further, with Edinburgh now leading Glasgow by nearly 1.7 million passengers a year.

The east coast airport recorded its sixth month of growth in a row, increasing its passenger levels by almost 4 per cent on a year ago, largely thanks to major expansion by the no-frills airline Ryanair.

By contrast, its western counterpart saw a further passenger slump of nearly 9 per cent, reflecting the fall in charter traffic and last year's collapse of XL, one of Britain's largest tour operators. The figures come as Glasgow City Council continues to challenge the Scottish Government's decision to scrap the Glasgow airport rail link as part of budget cuts.

It follows the the scrapping of the Edinburgh airport rail link in 2007, but trams are due to run there from the city centre and other rail interchanges at Edinburgh Park and Gogar from February 2012.

While one in four passengers travels to Edinburgh airport by bus, only one in nine does so at Glasgow, partly because they are less concentrated in the city itself, from where the main airport bus services operate.

Edinburgh is now almost back in annual growth, with more than 9 million passengers in the year to September. It was also the only one of BAA's seven UK airports to show growth last month, compared with a decline of more than 11 per cent at Stansted and small falls at Heathrow and Gatwick.

Glasgow was down to fewer than 7.4 million passengers a year, having lost one in eight of these over the past 12 months.

Aberdeen airport passenger numbers were also down in September, by more than 5 per cent, with the annual total down 9 per cent to just over three million.

BAA put a brave face on its Scottish figures, which it said were the best overall this year.

A spokesman said: "Passenger numbers in September showed a marked improvement on previous months, with a drop of only 2.8 per cent. This is the lowest monthly drop of 2009, and suggests the decline in passenger numbers may have finally stabilised.

"Although it is too early to predict a recovery in demand, September's performance is clearly encouraging, particularly at Aberdeen and Glasgow, which recorded their lowest percentage drop of the year.

"Edinburgh delivered yet another strong performance, recording its sixth consecutive month of growth, at a time when most UK airports are still being impacted by the recession."