Airports handle more flights
Despite gloomy recent predictions for UK airports and airlines, both East Midlands airport and Southampton airport set passenger records in 2007.
East Midlands airport carried 5.4 million passengers in 2007, a 14.5% increase on 2006. Passenger numbers in December at the airport near Nottingham rose for the twelfth successive month as almost 378,000 people used East Midlands, an increase of 16.7% over 2006.
Passengers at East Midlands were attracted by both holiday flights and business flights. Five new routes were introduced by Ryanair from East Midlands in 2007, with flights to Alicante, Belfast, Cork, Poznan and Tenerife. Airtours launched charter flights to Jamaica, the popular Caribbean holiday destination. And Scandinavian airline Sterling began flights to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm.
“This record increase in passengers demonstrates the demand in the region for local access to air travel. I’m delighted with the public response to the wide choice of destinations we're now able to offer and to the investment we’ve made in improving the passenger experience,” comments East Midlands airport MD, Penny Coates.
Southampton airport also had its busiest year ever. Passenger numbers were up 2.8% on 2006 to over 1.96 million. The Christmas and New Year holiday period was particularly busy, with over 133,000 passengers using Southampton airport for holiday and business travel.
Several new routes and airlines were also added during 2007. Flybe introduced new flights from Southampton airport to Nice and Frankfurt, while Inghams flew from Southampton to Verona in Italy. Eastern Airways added a new flight to Angers in the Loire Valley in France, and Channel Islands based airline Blue Islands began daily flights to Guernsey.
Southampton airport now has flights to 46 destinations operated by 14 airlines and tour operator partners. Most popular destinations from the airport in 2007 were Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Jersey, Guernsey, Paris, Dublin, Newcastle, Belfast and Amsterdam.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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