Airport is on the up and up...
Published by Simon Gwynn on Sat 09 Jun 12 @ 22:10
Glasgow Airport has confirmed its turnaround with another sizzling month's trading and more growth on the horizon.
Almost 20,000 extra passengers used the airport in June compared with one year earlier, which capped the airport's best six-month period since 2005.
Figures show that 702,803 passengers jetted in and out of Glasgow last month - 18,093 more than in June 2010 - to confirm that Scotland's biggest air hub is on the up and up.
Every month this year has recorded a rise in passengers although the decision by bmi to halt domestic services in and out of Glasgow could have a detrimental impact on this month's figures.
June's 2.6% passenger hike was achieved despite a dip in the number of people using domestic services, but airport managing director Amanda McMillan said: "Throughout June there was strong demand for EU scheduled traffic with a number of our airline partners reporting passenger growth."
But she warned: "While there was also strong demand for long-haul destinations, our domestic performance, as expected, is now starting to feel the effects of bmi's decision to withdraw its Glasgow to Heathrow service.
"The expectation is that this will continue to impact on passenger numbers throughout July, and next month's figures may well halt our pattern of steady growth.
"However, we continue to work closely with our airline partners to enhance our route network, and in June Jet2.com announced five new routes to Barcelona, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga and Murcia."
Few goods fly in or out of Glasgow but last month's cargo figures dropped by 48% compared with June 2010, when football accounted for a marked increase.
A major airline was hired to fly almost 100 plane-loads of whisky from Glasgow to South Africa so that World Cup fans could drown their sorrows or celebrate in style.
"Unfortunately, the World Cup is only played every four years," said an airport official.
