Airport soars high above Heathrow

Published on 10/07/2012 12:00

EDINBURGH Airport is surging in popularity and showing greater growth than London’s Heathrow, according to new figures.

Capital-based Skyscanner, a flight comparison site, found that year-on-year flight searches from Edinburgh had grown by 69 per cent, with Heathrow at 39 per cent.

The highest year-on-year increase in the UK was Leeds Bradford Airport – which recently started work on its multi-million pound terminal upgrade – with growth of 119 per cent.

Liverpool and Nottingham were in second and third places in terms of increase in search volumes, with 94 per cent and 93 per cent respectively. Edinburgh was in sixth place, followed by Glasgow in seventh.

Skyscanner’s Sam Poullain said: “Skyscanner’s data shows that there is huge interest in flights from regional airports.

“With 87 per cent of the UK’s population living outside of London, and while some of the smaller regional airports are never going to become the UK’s main international hubs, there clearly is scope for expansion which could go some way to solving the UK’s aviation problems.”