Scottish airports experience drop in passenger figures

Fewer people of travelling through the main Scottish airports in Glasgow and Edinburgh and much of the decline in passenger traffic can be attributed to faltering demand for domestic flights. The number of passengers departing from airports in Scotland on flights destined to land within the United Kingdom fell by a significant 9.9 percent during this past August, when compared to figures from the same period in 2007. When both international and domestic passengers are calculated together at all Scottish airports operated by BAA, the decline in traffic figures stands at 3.4 percent. A total of just over two million passengers travelled through Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports last month.  Nearly 21 million people used BAA-operated airports in Scotland  over the last 12 months.

Although passenger traffic on international flights has remained steady last month and even increased in some cases, there is concern that the bankruptcy of Zoom Airlines-which operated a base at the Glasgow Airport-will have a negative impact this fall. Zoom connected cities in the UK to major airports in Canada, as well as a small handful in the US, until the carrier went bankrupt two weeks ago. The disappearance of this airline will likely show its impact in the next passenger traffic figures released for Scottish airports in early October.

Thank you to the Press Association for the initial report.

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