Inverness Airport is on track for its busiest ever year having broken its previous passenger record in February. The air hub for the Highlands and Islands has handled 521,753 passengers in the past 11 months to the end of February, exceeding its busiest ever year total of just under 484,000 passengers achieved in 2003/04.

The February 2005 passenger figures from HIAL show that almost 68,000 passengers used the company’s 10 airports in the month, bringing the 11-month running total for 2004/05 to 936,301. This represents total passenger growth of more than 9% in the year so far.

Inverness continues to be the fastest developing airport in the region with passenger growth of almost 18% in the current year. The airports at Barra, Campbeltown, Kirkwall, Stornoway and Tiree have also increased their passenger numbers in the year compared to 2003/04.

The 10 airports handled 6,143 aircraft movements in February, an increase of 9.8% compared to February 2004, bringing the running total for the 11 months to 75,691.

Bob Macleod, HIAL’s Managing Director, said: “Our anticipated passenger total for the year of more than one million passengers for the 10 airports will be almost 30% higher than that achieved five years ago. This reflects the better air connectivity now available in the region as a result of route development and frequency increases in recent years.

“This will be Inverness Airport’s busiest ever year with growth resulting from the introduction of bmi’s daily service to Heathrow last March and higher passenger volumes on cross-border and Scottish domestic scheduled services.”

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited – Total Passenger Movements February 2005

ENDS