Glasgow Airport Passenger Traffic Shows Slight Decline in January

Airport Passenger Traffic Shows Slight Decline in
January 
The Herald, UK
 
February 12 2004 
 
The number of passengers passing through Glasgow
Airport fell slightly in January, according to the
latest figures issued by the British Airports
Authority.
They showed travellers flying to and from the west of
Scotland airport dipped to 471,800, a 1% decrease on
the same period last year.
A spokesman for BAA attributed the drop in numbers to
the loss of BMI baby's Cardiff flights, which were
transferred to Prestwick last summer. The budget
airline had blamed higher landing costs at Glasgow for
the move.
He said: "The loss of the Cardiff flight and a
reduction in the number of easyJet flights to
Amsterdam has led to this slight decrease in
passengers numbers.
"At the end of the day, it is a very small decrease
and we don't expect it to be the start of any negative
trend. New routes announced over the last few months
will soon start to deliver a period of strong growth."
BAA announced in November that Middle Eastern airline
Emirates plans to launch a daily flight from Glasgow
to Dubai in April.
It was a more positive picture, however, at Edinburgh,
where the number of passengers was up 1.9% to 508,400
for the month of January.
"Direct international flights were up by 8.6%, with
flights to short break and business destinations like
Prague, Frankfurt, Paris, and Geneva all proving very
popular.
"Alicante was also a very popular destination, as I
think a lot of people decided to avoid the cold
Scottish weather and go away for the New Year," added
the spokesman.
Overall passenger numbers rose just 0.1% last month at
BAA's three airports north of the border, with
Aberdeen reporting a fall of 1.7%. 
A spokesman said: "Over the last year, the Scottish
airports experienced very strong growth of low-fare
services as airlines entered a period of aggressive
marketing, and there has been some contraction of the
market since then."
 

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