FOLLOWING a record breaking year Edinburgh Airport, has started off 2015 with strong passenger growth.
Passenger figures were up 7% in January this year compared to last year with a total of 628,285 people travelling through the airport
The increase was helped by a significant rises in both domestic and international traffic due to new short haul and long haul routes operating which weren’t in place last year.
New short haul services such as Ryanair’s new three-times daily service to London Stansted and BA Cityflyer’s London City service operating 12 times per day were responsible for a 7.2% increase in domestic traffic- a total of 344,840 passengers.
International passenger numbers also increased with 283,445 people travelling through the airport, meaning an increase of 7.1% on 2014.
This increase can be attributed to Ryanair’s new four-times daily service to Dublin, increased capacity on Paris Charles De Gaulle with AirFrance’ HOP service, as well as Qatar Airways’ five per week service to Doha.
Further increases seem imminent with the various new routes launching in April, including Etihad Airways’ first route between Scotland and Abu Dhabi and a new service to Madrid with Iberia operating from April.
Last month the airport announced a new £50 million airside investment plan which will see a new immigration facility and more aircraft stands created, tripling the capacity for larger aircraft over the coming years.
Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: “Following our record-breaking year in 2014, we’ve started 2015 with a spring in our step and a renewed focus on what we want to deliver for our passengers.
“We saw a great performance from our new domestic services last month, with more new routes launching this spring, and are continuing to develop our facilities for passengers and airlines. The next few months will be an exciting time for our airport.
“With the RBS 6Nations now underway, we’re expecting to be busy with thousands of rugby fans travelling through the airport over the next few weeks. Edinburgh is a city with year-round appeal, from our amazing festivals to Michelin-star restaurants, there is something for everyone.
“We want to show our passengers a good time and will be pulling out all the stops to ensure they have the very best experience in 2015.”
