Edinburgh Airport had more passengers travelling through it last month than any other previous October on record, topping off the busiest six months ever for the airport.
A total of 917,437 people passed through the airport last month, a rise of 8.7 percent compared to October 2012. Domestic figures were up by 4.6 percent, with 428,064 passengers, while international registered an increase of over 11 percent with 489,373 people travelling through the airport. The moving annual total for the 12 months ending October 2013 was 9.66 million passengers.
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: ‘Since May, we’ve welcomed almost six million passengers through our doors. Edinburgh and Scotland continue to remain places where people want to visit for work or leisure and we’re delighted to play our part as one of the main gateways to our country.
‘We can only do this with hard work and collaboration. This is a team game and it’s more important than ever that we work together to make sure every visitor to Edinburgh has the best experience possible.
‘Having recently announced a number of fantastic new routes for next year and with work now underway on our EAST Expansion project, we’re excited for the future and look forward to entering a new phase for the airport.’
The airport said last month that Scottish passengers would have more choice for their summer holidays next year, after easyJet announced the return of flights from Edinburgh to Crete and Turkey from spring 2014.
Under the plan, easyJet will be operating twice weekly services to Bodrum in Turkey from March 31, and Heraklion in Crete from April 01, 2014.
John Watson, chief commercial officer at Edinburgh Airport, said, ‘It has been a great year for Edinburgh Airport and easyJet so far, with the airline launching six new European services from Edinburgh in March and the airport experiencing its busiest summer on record. We’re pleased we can add these destinations to our growing route network.’