Edinburgh Airport has recorded their busiest ever May period in their performance results today. They have carried 1,322,390 passengers throughout the month of May, which represents a 7.4% growth overall in total passenger numbers.
Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, Gordon Dewar said: “New routes have brought further growth to Edinburgh Airport which cements our position as Scotland’s busiest airport. We had a greater choice last month than compared with May 2017 with 23 new international routes to place like Washington D.C., Florence, and Dalaman, while easyJet’s route to Jersey was also served for the first time. It’s that range of choice that is providing excitement and a sense of adventure in our passengers who are eager to see the world and can set off on that trip from Edinburgh. The launch of the greatly anticipated Hainan route to China will be another huge boost for tourism, and with the busy festival season upon us, it promises to be a great summer for Scotland.”
As a breakdown, international traffic brought a lot of passengers in, around 844,329 in total, representing a 10.1% increase compared to last year. Domestic travel also increased by 2.9% to 478,061 in total. The domestic market grew due to the reasoning of easyJet using larger aircraft to London and domestic routes compared to the year previously, especially with the launch of their Jersey service back in March as well as increased frequencies on their Belfast route. All domestic carriers were flying fuller aircraft on average than last May.
Domestic travel also increased by 2.9% to 478,061 in total. The domestic market grew due to the reasoning of easyJet using larger aircraft to London and domestic routes compared to the year previously, especially with the launch of their Jersey service back in March as well as increased frequencies on their Belfast route. All domestic carriers were flying fuller aircraft on average than last May.
The growth in international traffic is down to the 23 routes launched since last May. Ryanair opened 13 of those 23 routes to the destinations being Budapest, Carcassonne, Eindhoven, Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Katowice, Nantes, Prague, Szczecin, Toulouse, Venice Treviso, Valencia, and Wroclaw. easyJet also used bigger aircraft for their international markets as well.
Continuing with the international flow, Jet2 introduced four new international routes to Antalya, Dalaman, Kos, and Funchal as well as Brussels Airlines using larger aircraft since November 2017. United Airlines also launched their Chicago service earlier than last summer as well as adding a new service to Washington D.C.
Popular destinations for the airport in May were Murcia and Malaga with Jet2, Gdansk, and Warsaw with Ryanair as well as Tenerife, Alicante and Lyon with easyJet. May 2018 saw the airport launch the daily service to Washington D.C with United, Dalaman twice weekly and Kos once weekly with Jet2, weekly services to Florence with BA Cityflyer as well as a weekly service to Antalya with Thomas Cook.
All-in-all, it has been a very strong performance at the airport. With the launch of Hainan Airlines’ Beijing-Edinburgh-Dublin service, it is with no doubt that the international traffic will continue to grow. Domestic travel may continue to grow at a slower rate, but is still developing, especially with the likes of the recently launched Jersey service by easyJet respectively.
