Scottish airport numbers flat in March

BAD weather during March held back passenger numbers at ­Scotland’s airports.

Although Edinburgh saw a 4.2 per cent increase in international passengers – the first time a rise has been seen since September, those using domestic flights fell to 371,083, a drop of 3.6 per cent on last year.

The airport, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, blamed closures of other airports around the UK due to bad weather. Overall passenger numbers edged down 0.1 per cent.

BAA’s Glasgow saw a slight rise in overall passenger numbers – up 0.6 per cent to 510,000. International traffic was boosted by Celtic’s Champions League fixture against Juventus in Italy during the month, the launch of Wizz Air flights to Warsaw and Gdansk in Poland and a new service to Reykjavik.

Aberdeen recorded a drop in traffic blamed on a fall in the number of helicopter flights after a model of Super Puma aircraft was grounded.

BAA said 267,341 people used the airport during March, down 3 per cent year on year, with helicopter passenger numbers down by almost a fifth,.

BAA said Heathrow saw 5.9 million passengers in March, a record for the month and up 3.9 per cent on March last year. But slow world trade saw Heathrow’s cargo activity down 2.3 per cent in March.