More than 67,000 passengers travelled by air in the North of Scotland in February bringing the 11-month total for HIAL’s 10 airports to 856,106.

This amounts to a 7.9% increase on the running passenger total for the same 11-month period in 2002-2003.

With new services at Inverness to Heathrow and Stockholm starting at the end of March and a summer service between Sumburgh and Oslo starting in July, the airport operator believes foundations are already in place for further growth in 2004-2005.

Passenger figures for February 2004 issued by HIAL today (9 March) show that 856,106 travellers used the company’s 10 airports in the 11 months to the end of February. This is an increase of more than 62,500 passengers on the previous year’s running total.

Overall passenger growth for the first 10 months of 2003/04 is 7.9% compared to 2002/03, with six out of the company’s 10 airports recording growth against last year’s performance.

In February, 67,710 passengers used HIAL airports; a 10.8% increase on February 2003’s figure of 61,136.

Inverness and Stornoway continue to be the fastest developing airports in the region with respective passenger growth for the year to date of 18.7% and 11.7%. Barra, Benbecula, Campbeltown and Kirkwall also recorded growth in passengers.

Islay, Wick and Tiree saw small drops in overall passengers for the 11-month period while Sumburgh’s figures continued to reflect the downturn in oil industry traffic.

Total aircraft movements, including scheduled, charter, executive, general aviation and military flights have also grown, up 6.9% to 74,318 for the 11 months compared with an annual total for 2002/03 of 76,119.

Passenger numbers are expected to continue to soar in the region with the introduction of bmi British Midland’s Inverness-Heathrow service on 28 March and Snowflake’s Inverness-Stockholm twice-weekly route on 29 March. Regional Scandinavian airline Wideroe will also operate twice-weekly flights between Shetland and Oslo in July and August.

From 28 March bmi flights to Heathrow will operate seven days a week, departing Inverness at 1330 and arriving in Heathrow at 1505. The service departs Heathrow at 1115 and arrives in Inverness at 1255. Online fares start at £13.50 one-way at www.flybmi.com or call 0870 607 0555.

From 29 March Snowflake, SAS’s low-cost airline, will fly from Inverness to Stockholm on Mondays and Fridays. One-way fares start at just £47 to Arlanda Airport – Scandinavia’s largest hub airport from where Snowflake flies to a further 18 destinations.

The service will depart Inverness at 1105 and arrive in Sweden at 1410 local time. Flights from Stockholm leave at 0900 local time, arriving at Inverness at 1005. Bookings can be made online at www.flysnowflake.com or by calling 0045 7766 1005.

Alex Johnson, HIAL’s Commercial and Marketing Manager, said: “Passenger figures in the region continue to grow and we are confident that this trend will continue into the next operating year with the addition of bmi’s Heathrow-Inverness and Snowflake’s Stockholm-Inverness services and Wideroe’s Shetland-Oslo link.

“The Scottish Executive’s Route Development Fund has assisted us in bringing in the first direct international service to Inverness for several years from Stockholm, which will be a significant boost for tourism in the Highlands. With the support of the RDF we are confident that we can continue to attract more airlines to the region, bringing better connectivity by air and major economic benefits in terms of money coming into the Highlands and Islands,” said Mr Johnson.

HIAL Passenger Figures for 2003/2004 (April-February)