Up, up and away as Edinburgh Airport hits record high

Edinburgh handled nearly one million travellers in July, and Saturday the 16th was the airport's single busiest day, with more than 36,000 passing through the terminal – 4,000 above the month's average.

The records, attributed to an increase in international flights and routes, helped to bolster Edinburgh's position as Scotland's fastest-growing large airport.

It follows the airport achieving its busiest ever March, April and June this year.

However, Glasgow and Aberdeen, the country's two other main terminals, benefited from route growth, too, and saw passenger numbers rise for a seventh successive month.

Glasgow finally halted a six-year decline in annual passenger numbers, but UK traffic at all three airports continued to fall.

Edinburgh's passenger total last month increased to 992,500, up 3.3 per cent compared with the same month in 2010, according to figures published by owner BAA.

That accelerated the airport's annual growth to 5.7 per cent and nearly 9.2 million passengers – a stark turnaround when the total was shrinking by 3 per cent a year ago.

EasyJet and Ryanair, the main carriers at Edinburgh, have both added new European routes and expect to carry nearly 4m passengers from the airport between them this year.

Airport managing director Kevin Brown said: "This fantastic performance is testament to the continued appeal and resilience of Edinburgh as a place in which to live, work and visit and to the hard work and dedication of the team at Edinburgh airport. We're continually adding new routes and upgrading our facilities."

An airport spokesman added: "July's success was driven in the main by international passengers. Our scheduled European market has performed extremely well, showing the benefit of our strategy to increase Edinburgh's links across the continent."

Aberdeen recorded the largest passenger increase of the three main airports last month, up 8.7 per cent to 301,000.

Managing director Derek Provan said it had also been fuelled by route growth.

He said: "We are delighted with our performance in July and particularly pleased with the strong demand for international services.

"This reflects the introduction of new routes such as Baku with Azerbaijan Airlines. There have also been other domestic routes come on stream, for example the EasyJet service to Gatwick."

Glasgow airport's passenger total grew slightly last month, by 0.5 per cent to 793,200, halting a decline that started in 2005. It was overtaken for passenger numbers by Edinburgh four years ago. July's growth was largely attributed to the arrival of Jet2, whose seven routes contributed to the airport's European traffic increasing by nearly half.

Glasgow also attracted more transatlantic passengers, especially from the United States.

Glasgow managing director Amanda McMillan said she was encouraged but still cautious about the airport's performance, particularly since BMI had axed its route to Heathrow – the UK's sole hub airport – in March this year.

Heathrow handled 6.9m passengers last month and also recorded its busiest day ever.

The records were applauded by business groups but not by environmental campaigners.

Lucy Bird, chief executive of Marketing Edinburgh, said: "Achieving record passenger numbers is excellent news and illustrates the demand for diverse, frequent routes to and from the airport.

"Edinburgh has massive global appeal as a dynamic city like no other, whether it's for a short-break or a business trip.

"The ongoing development of Edinburgh Airport's facilities will further strengthen Edinburgh as a destination and a gateway of choice for travellers, bringing valuable economic return to Scotland."

Kevin Brown, Edinburgh airport's managing director, said: "We're continually adding new routes and upgrading our facilities. This choice, coupled with a focus on the passenger, seems to resonate with the travelling public.

"We will continue to work with the city's tourism industry, business community and government to make sure we play our part in maintaining Edinburgh as a top European destination."

However, WWF Scotland director Richard Dixon said that it was misguided to "celebrate" passenger numbers rising claiming this would lead to an increase in climate emissions.

"No one is saying that people shouldn't fly at all but air travel is already the largest source of climate emissions yet isn't included in the official UN climate figures and still benefits from tax-free fuel," Mr Dixon said.

"No doubt some of this growth will have been in flights to London and other English airports, journeys which can be made almost as fast door-to-door and much more pleasantly by train.

"The Scottish Government need to make their transport and climate change policies work together instead of against each other."

Overall, BAA's six UK airports handled just over 11 million passengers in July 2011 - an increase of 0.8 per cent on July 2010.