Mild winter lifts air travel

MILD winter weather helped increase the number of passengers flying in and out of airports in the Highlands and Islands over the festive period.

Figures released by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial) for December showed a rise of 24.7 per cent over the same month in 2010, or an extra 17,971 passengers at the 11 airports operated by the state-owned company.

Over the whole of 2011, passenger numbers rose by 9.6 per cent on the previous year.