October passenger numbers

A total of 1,309,170 passengers passed through Edinburgh Airport in October – 1% behind the same month last year.

The fall in domestic passengers had a big influence on the overall numbers as Ryanair ended its Stansted route. The route was reduced to four weekly from four daily in June 2019 before ending completely last month.

Apart from March 2018 when Beast from the East resulted in a 0.1% fall in passenger numbers, it’s the first time in five years that negative growth has been recorded.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport said:

“We’ve had almost 60 months of continuous growth and it’s unfortunate that we’ve seen this temporary fall in passenger numbers – something we earlier this year predicted would happen.

“It shows us that growth is not guaranteed and it is only possible with hard work and a collaborative approach. The arguments around ADT are well known and we cannot hide the fact that we now have yet another obstacle to work around to deliver that growth that has become expected. Connectivity is important to Scotland and our initial talks with the Scottish Government about bringing the world closer to Scotland have been positive.

“As an airport, we play our part in tourism, business, education, research and culture, so ensuring a sustainable future for the industry is very important. We need to work together to deliver that.”