Glasgow one of Europe’s fastest growing airports

Glasgow Aiport has attracted many large carriers like Dubai-based giants, Emirates. Picture: John Devlin

The principal airport for the nation’s biggest city was the fourth fastest growing airport in its category for the month of August, with annual passenger traffic increasing by 12.2 per cent.

It was Glasgow Aiport’s 30th consecutive month of growth in August with a total of 878,515 travellers using the airport.

ACI Europe, the European airport trade body, categorised all European airports based on their passenger numbers in it’s August 2015 traffic report. Glasgow Airport fell into group three: airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers.

The airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic during the month of August (compared with August 2014) are as follows:

GROUP 1: Airports with more than 25m passengers annually

Madrid (+14.0%), Istanbul IST (+11.6%), Rome FCO (+6.6%), Amsterdam (+5.7%), Copenhagen (+5.5%) and Munich (+5.5%)

GROUP 2: Airports with 10-25m passengers annually

Istanbul SAW (+21.8%), Athens (+19.3%), Ankara (+16.9%), Dublin (+15.6%) and Izmir (+12.8%)

GROUP 3: Airports with 5-10m passengers annually

Gothenburg (+16.0%), Budapest (+15.0%), Porto (+14.3%), Glasgow (+12.2%) and Stuttgart STR (+11.0%)

GROUP 4: Airports with less than 5m passengers annually

Bucharest BBU (+58.2%), Ohrid (+56.4%), Astrakhan (+44.8%), Timisoara (+33.3%) and Trabzon (+31.8%)

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe said: “Summer is ending and we can look back at some very good months for passenger traffic at Europe’s airports.

“Within the context of still sluggish economic recovery in the Eurozone and risk of contagion from the slowdown in China and other emerging markets, oil prices are likely to remain the decisive factor for air traffic in the coming months. In limiting potential price hikes, the scale of global oil oversupply certainly gives us some comfort when looking at the months ahead.”

Explaining Glasgow Airport’s traffic surge, Brian McClean, Head of Communications said: “ It’s clear with 26 new routes and services in 2015, we are offering more choice for our passengers.”