Ryanair row blamed for drop in airport passenger figures

Edinburgh Airport has blamed a fall in passenger numbers on budget airline Ryanair cutting services.

Domestic traffic at the terminal rose, but international traffic fell by 6.8 per cent following a dispute between Ryanair and former owner BAA earlier this year. Winter routes including Berlin and Tallinn, Estonia were cut.

But last week the airport, which is now owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, announced it had struck a new deal with Ryanair which will see the low-cost carrier establish routes to Bologna and Cagliari in Italy, Beziers in France, Corfu in Greece, Katowice in Poland, and Santander in Spain.

The airline is also increasing the frequency of flights on five other routes from Edinburgh.

Just over 631,321 passengers travelled through the airport, a drop of 1.7 per cent on 2011.

Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar said: “Clearly, I’m happy to see our domestic performance come back into growth but this is tempered with disappointment at the temporary decline in international traffic.

“We always knew that Ryanair’s cuts would bite and they have. That is why last week’s deal was a key priority for my team and I.

“Ryanair is one of our biggest customers and to fall out with a large customer is never good.

“I’m glad we could work with them to gain trust and understanding to ultimately create a foundation on which we can together deliver more routes for Scotland.”