Frightfully good figures
More than 1.2 million passengers used Edinburgh Airport in October, making it the busiest October on record for the terminal. It’s the seventh consecutive month with over one million passengers using Scotland’s busiest airport. A total of 1,226,109 people came through the terminal in October, an increase of 8.5% on the same month last year. International passengers continued to surge, up 12.4% on October 2016 at 760,296.
Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport Gordon Dewar said:
“It may have been Halloween in October but passengers weren’t scared to travel, with Edinburgh Airport recording another record month and the seventh consecutive month of more than one million people coming through the terminal.
“Those are outstanding figures and once again shows the appetite that is out there for people to travel out of and into Edinburgh, especially international passengers who continue to put Edinburgh at the top of their destinations list.
“We’re working with our airline partners to expand and extend choice for passengers, whether that is a ski break or some winter sun, and we’re seeing the benefits of that already as we close in on another record year for Scotland’s busiest airport.”
Background
Growth in passengers came from the following:
- Ryanair’s six new routes to Milan Bergamo, Girona, Porto, Vigo and Warsaw Modlin which launched in March and the new three per week service to Eindhoven, which launched on the 1st of September.
- Overall more people flew with easyJet with more flights operating to city destinations such as Geneva, Amsterdam, London Gatwick, Paris CDG, Basel and Prague. Bilbao was launched on 30th April and has proved popular with the Edinburgh market.
- Jet2.com operated more services to popular holiday destinations including Las Palmas, Malaga, Pula, Split, Tenerife and Las Palmas. Girona, Almeria, Fuerteventura, Murcia and Naples which have all launched since last year were also popular.
- More passengers travelled between Oslo and Edinburgh with Norwegian as more flights operated and the aircraft were fuller than last year. The new services to Stewart International (New York), Providence Rhode Island and Bradley International (Hartford/Connecticut) further boosted passenger numbers.
- Eurowings launched a new six per week service to Munich in March to join its services to Cologne and Dusseldorf.
- Flybe’s London Heathrow service which launched for the start of the Summer season in March 2017.