The Highlands of Scotland’s gateway airport has topped the table of passenger growth for mainland Scottish airports for the second year running, according to annual figures published by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Inverness Airport achieved passenger growth of 14% in 2005 placing it ahead of Scotland’s four largest airports at Aberdeen (8%), Edinburgh (5%), Glasgow (3%) and Prestwick (11%). Although still ranked fifth in Scotland by total volume Inverness handled an additional 75,266 passengers in the year taking its annual throughput to 626,284.
Inverness was also ranked the fastest growing Scottish airport in 2004 when it recorded passenger growth in the year of 20% to a total of 551,018.
The airport, the largest of 10 in the region operated by Scottish Executive owned Highlands and Islands Airports Limited, is on target to handle a record 660,000 passengers in the operating year ending 31 March 2006 which will represent passenger growth of 90% since 1999. HIAL aims to achieve one million passengers per annum at Inverness in the next five years.
Inverness currently handles more than 330 scheduled flights a week operated by British Airways (BA Connect and BA franchise partner Loganair), bmi, easyJet, Eastern Airways and Highland Airways to destinations including London (Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton), Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stornoway, Kirkwall and Sumburgh.
New routes to Dublin with Aer Arann and Leeds Bradford with Eastern Airways will start in April.
HIAL is currently investing £1.6 million to increase its aircraft apron parking space by 50% to accommodate current and future growth in scheduled air traffic. The extended south apron is due to be completed in May. Future infrastructure plans will be unveiled in the airport’s outline master plan which is due to be published in the summer.
Research published last year showed that the airport, an important gateway for business and leisure travel, provides an annual economic output of £120 million and supports almost 2,300 full time equivalent jobs in the Highlands.
Inglis Lyon, HIAL’s managing director said: “In recent years we have been able to unlock some of the airport’s development potential and are now at the beginning of what should be a significant period of growth. We look forward to working closely with the airlines, our shareholder and partners to achieve this and deliver major economic and social benefits for the region.”
Inverness Airport manager James Walton added: “The almost doubling of passengers we have achieved in partnership with our customer airlines at Inverness over the past six years has established the airport as a major economic force in the Highlands and Inner Moray Firth. This has been a major factor in the growth of inbound tourism and opened up improved access to other parts of the UK and internationally for businesses. We aim to ensure that the region’s gateway airport continues to grow and deliver sustainable benefits in the years ahead.”
RSS feed available