More people flying abroad from Aberdeen

Holiday airline helps passenger figures to climb

By Keith Findlay

Published:

An early start to the summer schedule helped to boost passenger numbers at Aberdeen Airport last month, its operator said yesterday.

BAA Scotland said 280,700 travellers used the terminal at Dyce during April, up 1.6% on the same month in 2007, taking the total for the first four months of this year to more than 1million.

This year, budget airline Globespan launched its summer schedule of flights to destinations including Alicante, Barcelona and Faro a month earlier than in 2007.

BAA Scotland said this meant an 88% year-on-year increase in the number of people flying on low-cost carriers from Aberdeen. Aberdeen Airport managing director Kevin Brown said: “It’s terrific to see so many people taking advantage of the early launch of Globespan’s summer schedule.”

The number of international travellers rose 15% last month, compared with a year earlier, but there was an even bigger jump – 21% – in the number of people flying to destinations outside the EU.

There was, however, a 6% downturn in domestic flights to and from the Granite City, in line with a trend seen at other UK airports. Factors affecting the UK services included T5 chaos at Heathrow, less capacity this year on the Gatwick route, Ryanair scrapping its flights to Liverpool and Easter falling in April in 2007.

Several UK cities saw increased year-on-year demand last month, however, with 72% more people flying between Aberdeen and Southampton and 33% more on Manchester services.

Among the international routes, there was a 45% rise in business between Aberdeen and Stavanger, while flights to and from Esbjerg, Bergen and Copenhagen were up 28%, 16% and 14% respectively. Combined passenger totals for Aberdeen’s three helicopter operators – Bond Offshore, Bristow and CHC Scotia – rose by 8.7% to more than 45,600 in April.

BAA Scotland said its three airports – Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow – were used by more than 1.6million passengers last month, about the same number as in April 2007.