News: Rising investment sees more Scottish flights
Flights > News > # 774 (11/04/2006)
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BAA have a programme of investment in Edinburgh Airport with a budget of over £100m. This has included the impressive |
Scotland’s busiest airports ended the financial year on a high, with the year marked by rising passengers numbers, rising investment and a renewed effort to connect Scotland to the rest of the world. Airport operator BAA Scotland has revealed the number of passengers using Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen Airports reached a new high of 20.3 million in 2005/06, a rise of 4.7% on the previous financial year. Across the group’s airports, international traffic grew by 8.7%, with domestic traffic up 2.2%.
Glasgow Airport ended the financial year with 8.8 million passengers, a rise of 2.4% on the previous year. Palma was Glasgow’s busiest international destination during the year, followed by Tenerife and Amsterdam. Dubai was the most popular long haul destination. Excluding London, Birmingham was the busiest domestic route.
At Edinburgh, passenger numbers grew by 5.6% to almost 8.5 million. Amsterdam, Dublin and Frankfurt were the most popular international destinations. Flights to Birmingham ware again the most popular amonst UK destinations outside London.
Aberdeen was the fastest growing of BAA Scotland’s three airports, ending the year with 2.95 million passengers, up 9.5% on the previous year. Amsterdam, Stavanger and Dublin were the busiest international routes. Scatsta was the busiest UK destination outside London, reflecting Aberdeen’s status as Europe’s energy capital.
Throughout the year, 27 new services were introduced with direct support from BAA Scotland’s Route Development Fund, including flights to Pakistan, Egypt, Switzerland, Spain and Norway. Poland established itself as a fast growing market with new flights from the capital to Warsaw, Gdansk and Katowice. BAA Scotland invested more than £46 million upgrading its three airports, including £11 million on Edinburgh’s new Air Traffic Control Tower, £10 million on a major expansion of Glasgow’s international pier, and £3 million on a new departure lounge at Aberdeen Airport.
Stephen Baxter, managing director of BAA Scotland, said:
“This has been a year of rising passenger numbers, matched by rising investment in our airports. With passenger demand at an all time high, and set to grow further, BAA Scotland is working hard to deliver a world class transport infrastructure for Scotland.”
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