Edinburgh Airport records lowest passenger levels since 1995 due to Covid-19 pandemic

Edinburgh Airport recorded its lowest passenger numbers since 1995, dropping 76 per cent from nearly 15 million passengers in 2019 to less than 3.5 million.

The airport’s chief executive, Gordon Dewar, said the numbers highlighted the “long-term damage” on the aviation industry and the Scottish economy. He said there was “no clear path to recovery”.

In 2019, the airport welcomed 14,747,541 passengers through its doors compared to 3,478,501 last year.

Numbers for the final quarter of 2020 also showed a passenger number drop of 90 per cent, with fewer than 330,000 passengers compared to more than 3.3 million in 2019.

Edinburgh Airport saw a drop of 76 per cent in their passenger numbers in 2020

Staff at the airport – Scotland’s busiest – faced the loss of 250 of their colleagues through redundancy in the early stages of the pandemic.

However, continued restrictions could lead to further redundancies in coming months if the situation does not continue to improve.

The airport said independent research undertaken by BiGGAR Economics in partnership with the airport showed the reduction in passengers may have led to a cost of £1 billion to the Scottish economy and a loss of more than 21,000 jobs.

Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: “Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones through this pandemic and with those on the frontline managing the health crisis.

“The fall in our passenger numbers is only one reflection of the long-term damage being inflicted by Covid-19 on Scotland’s economy and its social fabric, but it is a worrying one and there is no clear path to recovery.

“Nobody should assume that when the pandemic subsides, life will go back to normal.

"At the airport, we will be starting from a low level of activity not recorded here since 1995 and the choice of airlines and destinations may be dramatically different to those we had worked hard to build before 2020 and on which many people depend for bringing visitors to Scotland and for holidays and business, including exports."

Last week, the Scottish Government was criticised by Mr Dewar and Derek Provan, chief executive of AGS Airports, which owns Aberdeen and Glasgow Airports, for a failure to engage meaningfully with the sector on potential alternatives to quarantine.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Tuesday that a stricter managed quarantine would be brought in over coming weeks for all incoming travellers, a move that is likely to further reduce numbers arriving into Scotland’s airports.

Mr Dewar said: “We believe that now is the right time for industry, government and trade unions to be thinking about a substantial economic recovery plan – one that does not distract the health professionals from the important job of saving lives and protecting the NHS today, but one which puts Scotland in the best possible position to recover as quickly as possible when the conditions allow.

“The power and impact of the aviation industry cannot simply be measured on passenger numbers and the number of aircraft arriving and departing – thousands of people rely on airports and airlines, and their vast supply chains, for the income that puts food on the table and pays the bills.

"Other countries around the world are providing support for their aviation sectors and UK and Scottish Governments should do the same.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.