Fewer Edinburgh Airport fliers due to Ryanair cuts

Ryanair has cut several winter routes from Edinburgh, leading to a small reduction in passengers. Picture: Getty

The dip came as rival Glasgow celebrated its 21st consecutive month of growth, thanks in part to new Ryanair routes, while Aberdeen recorded its busiest ever day during October.

Edinburgh said Ryanair had cut several winter routes last month, including to Paris and Stockholm, which contributed to a 0.2 per cent reduction in passengers to 916,000 compared to a year ago. It was the first decrease since March last year.

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However, the 2.5 per cent drop in international traffic was almost offset by a 2.4 per cent rise in UK passengers, which had fallen over the previous two months.

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said his target was to stem the fall in passenger numbers - which totalled 10.1m over the last year - after they topped 6m between May and October.

He said: “We’re still on a high from a fantastic summer and we’re pleased with our performance in October.

“Our moving average total is still comfortably over the 10 million mark for this point in the year and our goal is to maintain this for the calendar year.”

Glasgow saw passengers increase by 2.7 per cent to 734,000 last month in its busiest October since the recession six years ago.

Ryanair contributed to the expansion by operating from the airport for the first time, with seven routes this winter.

Airport managing director Amanda McMillan said: “We have secured over 20 new routes and services in 2014 and have invested more than £20 million in refurbishing large parts of the terminal building.”

She expected last Sunday’s MTV Europe Music Awards and Friday’s Scotland v Ireland European Championship qualifying game to lead to further growth this month.

Aberdeen, Scotland’s third busiest airport, said more North Sea helicopter flights and other flights had increased passengers by 8.8 per cent to 357,000.

A new daily passenger record was set on 10 October of 15,068, beating the previous high in July.

Operations director Roger Hunt said: “We planned meticulously for the October get-away this year, recognising that it was set to be a busy time, and the hard work paid off.

“With growth comes capacity constraints and challenges, and we are working hard to address these.

“We recently made considerable changes to the airport security layout to dramatically reduce congestion.”

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