Another dip in passengers at Aberdeen

THE latest figures revealed by airport operator BAA yesterday showed a 22nd consecutive month of year-on-year decline in passengers at Aberdeen.

BAA said a total of 195,000 passengers passed through the terminal during February, 4.6% fewer than in the same month in 2009.

Despite the latest setback to long-term growth plans, airport managing director Kevin Brown remained upbeat about its prospects. He said: “There can be no doubt that what we are seeing is the continued effects of the recession and its impact across all of aviation, however, I am confident we are moving in the right direction and that this year we may begin to see some signs of growth.”

Glasgow Airport passenger numbers dropped by 5% to 400,600 last month but Edinburgh managed a 3.5% rise to 582,100, helping to limit the year-on-year decline for all three of BAA’s Scottish airports to 0.9%.

Passenger numbers at Heathrow and Southampton were up by 5.3% to 4.6million and 5.9% to 114,900 respectively, while Stansted’s fell 4.4% to 1.24million.

The total for all six BAA-run UK airports was 7.13million, up 2.4% year-on-year.