Birmingham airport passengers fall
The number of passengers using Birmingham airport in January fell, but there was good news as low cost airline Ryanair announced a base there.
Birmingham airport is the second largest airport in the UK outside London, and its performance provides a good barometer of the demand for holiday flights at the start of the year.
Just over 576,000 passengers used Birmingham airport in January, a tiny decrease of 0.1% over the previous year, but perhaps an indication of things to come over the next year after a long period of increases.
“January saw a slight decline in passenger figures of 0.1% over the previous year which reflects a downturn in leisure travel. However, we had some fantastic news in January with Ryanair announcing a base here at Birmingham and the introduction of 20 new routes,” says acting MD of Birmingham International Airport, Joe Kelly.
Despite the overall fall in passenger numbers, there was growth on some routes. Non EU routes grew by 6.3% and EU routes by 3.3%, while passenger numbers on flights to the Irish Republic leapt by 9.5%.
Most growth was experienced on flights to Bratislava (up 955.4%), Murcia in Spain (up 335%), Barcelona (+179.5%), Geneva (+94.2%), Arrecife (+88.1%), and Paphos in Cyprus (+87.6%). Charter traffic to the increasingly popular winter sun destination of Egypt grew by 39.9%.
Other airlines besides Ryanair have also announced new flights from Birmingham airport this year. bmibaby is launching flights to Krakow in Poland on 12 February, while Centralwings will also begin flights to the Polish city on 1 April. Lufthansa will start flights to Hamburg on 31 March, and flybe commences flights to Inverness on 30 March.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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