Scotland's main airports are experiencing an increase in passenger numbers due to a sudden rush in international air travel . One of the main factors that have contributed to the rise has been the number of direct links, the major airports have, with the rest of the world.
Airports in Glasgow and Edinburgh have increased their numbers by a total of 2.5 per cent in a year. BAA Scotland released year-on-year passenger growth figures in a recent report, which saw Aberdeen have the highest increase of 9.7 per cent, with 2.3 per cent at Edinburgh and 0.2 per cent at Glasgow.
The figures confirmed that Edinburgh is catching up with Glasgow as Scotland’s busiest airport, now being only 200,000 passengers behind in a year. The complete figures show that Glasgow handles 8.77 million passengers a year, with 8.56 million travelling through Edinburgh, and 3.1 million at Aberdeen.
BAA announced that flights within the UK are steadily falling due to fewer passengers taking connecting flights to travel abroad . Another factor is the huge increase in airport security after last August’s terrorist alert.
Other factors included the greater use of video conferencing and e-mail to cut business flights, and the growing popularity of rail travel .
David Spaven, the Chairman of the sustainable transport campaign group TRANSform Scotland, said, "People are getting more and more frustrated about the hassles of domestic air travel, which is becoming an increasingly fragmented process."
It wasn’t all good news for the Scottish airports as passengers have experienced marginal changes in delays to flights to and from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
At Glasgow, for instance, reliability of on-time flights dipped two points to 77 per cent, and average delays increased vastly from one minute to 13 minutes. The official standard for "on time" is up to 15 minutes late.
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Passenger boom at Scotlands Major Airports Wed, 11 Oct 2006      Recommended linksBuild your holiday package onlineGreat deals on flights Book your accommodation online Visit Scotland Travel search engine comes to the UK Brits have no idea about the location of UK holiday destinations |
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