Edinburgh Airport confirms 2019 was record year despite December fall in domestic market

Edinburgh Airport has confirmed 2019 was a record year with more than 14.7 million passengers passing through.

Edinburgh Airport has confirmed 2019 was a record year with more than 14.7 million passengers passing through. Pic: Lisa Ferguson

A total of 14,747,830 people travelled through the airport last year, making 2019 the busiest ever year for a Scottish airport.

The numbers are up 3.1 per cent on 2018 with growth in international passengers driving the increase.

The figures follow a 10.2 per cent rise in International passenger numbers in December, although there was a 8.9 per cent decline for the domestic market in the same month.

Reasons given for the domestic slump were Ryanair cutting the Stansted route from October and Flybe stopping to operate East Midlands in the same month.

However, this negative impact was softened by British Airways boosting flight frequencies on Heathrow and Gatwick and Loganair starting a new route to the East Midlands in October.

Record Year

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: “We’re delighted to deliver a record year for any Scottish airport as passengers continued to take advantage of new routes, new airlines and the opportunity to expand their horizons and travel the world.

“We never lose sight of the fact that the airport is a conduit to a whole host of things. We play our part in tourism, business, education, research and culture. We are that gateway to Scotland and to the world, and direct connectivity to countries across the world plays a huge part in that success.

“Clearly, we want to see that success continue to benefit Edinburgh and Scotland and travel will always be a part of that, but we do have a responsibility to manage that success in a sustainable manner. We appreciate that we need to show leadership in this area and we are currently finalising a strategy which will map out our approach to operations at Edinburgh to make them even more sustainable than they already are. We look forward to sharing that strategy and engaging with our communities on it.

“Finally, I would like to thank all staff across campus who worked to make this a record year for Edinburgh Airport. We all play a part in the journey of our passengers and it is that team approach which helps us to deliver the many big days that are experienced at the airport every day."

Edinburgh Airport's international market had a year-on-year 10.2 per cent rise due to strong growth in the short haul segment.

Among the reasons for this growith were easyJet starting a new route to Verona, Lauda operating a new route to Vienna and Delta increasing from a 5x weekly to daily service to JFK.

Wizz Air also started four new routes in December to Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw and Gdansk.

New routes for 2019 (21 routes: 18 international and 3 domestic):

Mar 2019:

Loganair to Islay

Apr 2019:

American Airlines to Philadelphia

Ryanair to Billund & Luxembourg

May 2019:

Delta Airlines to Boston

Jet 2 to Bodrum, Bourgas and Corfu

Loganair to Bergen, Stavanger & Guernsey

June 2019:

Alitalia to Milan (both Linate and Malpensa)

Great Dane Airlines to Aalborg

October 2019:

Lauda to Vienna

Loganair to East Midlands

December 2019:

easyJet to Verona

Wizz Air to Bucharest, Budapest, Warsaw Chopin & Gdansk

New Routes announced for 2020:

Rotterdam with Transavia (Feb)

Birmingham with easyJet (Mar)

Gibraltar with easyJet (Mar)

Catania with easyJet (Mar)

Bydgoszcz with Ryanair (Apr)

Hannover with Loganair (Apr)

Izmir with Jet2 (May)

Esbjerg with Loganair (May)

Antalya with TUI (May)

London Southend with Flybe (Jun)

Sharm el Sheikh with TUI Airways (Nov)