Edinburgh Airport shrugs off poor start to year with passengers record

EDINBURGH Airport enjoyed its best-ever passenger figures last month as it benefited from the addition of 26 routes this year.

The 873,200 passengers recorded during September was a 2.2 per cent rise on a year earlier although the impact of the Icelandic volcano ash cloud, the collapse of Flyglobespan and the British Airways cabin crew strikes means the year-to-date figure is still 5 per cent down on 2009.

New destinations, including Helsinki and Marrakech, helped boost the numbers using Scotland's busiest airport.

A spokesman said it had been the third month running of impressive gains. "We had a difficult start to the year, but these figures demonstrate that Edinburgh very much continues to be a place people want to visit and live in," he said.

The latest passenger figures released by BAA yesterday also show that numbers at Glasgow Airport were down 5.7 per cent at 675,300 during September and 5.1 per cent lower at 268,300 at Aberdeen. The highest growth seen across BAA's UK airports was at Heathrow, where a recovery in business travel helped it to the busiest September on record.

The 6.2 million passengers represented a 7.6 per cent increase on a year earlier and also signalled a pick-up in the long-haul market, with the recovering international economy seeing sharp rises in those flying to destinations such as China and Brazil.

The airport is also a major hub for connections, which means many passengers are passing through Heathrow on transfer flights. Destinations including Geneva, Rome and Dubai recorded the biggest leap in passenger numbers at Heathrow.

BAA said that further falls seen in passenger numbers at its other London airport, Stansted, confirmed ongoing difficulties in the wider UK leisure travel market, with low-cost carriers continuing to cut flight capacity.

However, the decline in Stansted passenger numbers slowed from 6.1 per cent in August to 4.3 per cent in September.

Overall, BAA said traffic across all of its six UK airports rose 3.3 per cent year-on-year to a total of 9.99 million last month. BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: "The growth reflects an improved outlook for our airline customers and an increase in business confidence."

The figures follow recent encouraging passenger traffic reports from airlines, with British Airways last week revealing a 4.3 per cent rise in passenger traffic last month - its first increase since February.

Budget airline EasyJet also raised profit expectations after a rise in the number of passengers travelling from the UK to beach destinations boosted sales in September.Meanwhile, shares in Aim-listed Best of the Best, which runs competitions in airports to win supercars, crashed yesterday after BAA said it was ending its contract with the company for sites at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heathrow and Stansted.

BAA, which owns a 13.6 per stake in Best of the Best, said it wants to use the space in its departure lounges to provide more seating, signage and information for passengers. BAA commercial director John Holland-Kaye said: "We are constantly reviewing how we can improve the service we offer passengers and concluded that the sites … can be better used."

Best of the Best said it was "deeply regrettable" that BAA had decided to pull its contract. It will now launch a review of the business. Shares in Best of the Best closed down 14.5p, or 49 per cent, at 15p.