Edinburgh Airport breaks monthly passenger record

The airport has earned the tag Scotland’s busiest airport as it is the first in Scottish history to reach this milestone.

Airport bosses are hopeful of more record breaking figures at the end of August as hordes of festival goers and Ryder Cup golf fans pass through its doors.

A total of 1,104,264 people passed through the airport last month - an increase of 1.8 per cent on the same period in 2013.

International passenger numbers saw an increase of 4 per cent on the previous year with 661,220 passengers while domestic passenger saw a slight decrease of 1.3 per cent with 443,044 people.

July’s international traffic was driven by Scots flying off on their annual summer holidays to traditional sunshine destinations like Portugal, Spain and Majorca - a handful of Thomson charter services to Cancun and Florida also increased the international passenger flow.

The airport’s successful summer began with the launch of a host of new long and short-haul routes to Crete, Zurich, Chicago, Doha and Philadelphia.

Edinburgh Airport first surpassed the one million passenger mark last summer when it welcomed over two million passengers between July and August.

Edinburgh Airport chief executive, Gordon Dewar, said: “Breaking the 1.1 million passenger mark in July was another milestone for us and I’m delighted to be celebrating this with our teams across the airport who work hard to give passengers a great experience.

“To put it into context, the 1,104,264 airline tickets we processed in July could stretch almost twice the height of our air traffic control tower.

“The next few weeks and months will be hugely exciting for us as we welcome passengers from all over the world to Scotland for our famous festivals and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. We’re also nearing completion of our brand new terminal extension which should be operational from October, offering our passengers a more efficient and enjoyable airport experience.”

July saw almost 10,800 aircraft movements at Edinburgh Airport which, when added together, carried enough passengers to fill 220 Sir Chris Hoy Velodromes and 4400 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.