Aberdeen numbers drop

SCOTLAND – Aberdeen international airport has seen its passenger numbers drop, in contrast to rising footfall figure at other Scottish airports.

The total number of passengers to pass through the airport was down 10.4% during May, compared to the same period last year.

The airport is attributing the dip to a number of reasons.  Virgin Atlantic withdrew their Little Red service from Aberdeen to Heathrow leading to domestic passenger figures to fall by 13.9%.

The airport has also struggled to secure routes, with managing director Carol Benzie saying that the airport was “being severely hampered” by air passenger duty (APD).

APD is due to be devolved to Scottish parliament. The Government at Holyrood have already consulted on an alternative tax, laying out plans to first reduce the tax by 50% before going a step further to abolish it altogether.

Ms Benzie added, “In addition to acting as a barrier to securing new services, APD makes it extremely challenging to maintain vital, existing domestic services.”

Despite the fall in passenger numbers at Aberdeen falling, other airports in Scotland are enjoying somewhat of a boom. For the same period for the month of May, passengers travelling through Glasgow airport rose by 5.5 percent, with both international and domestic services thriving, due to the introduction of new routes from Flybe.

In a recent consultation with the Scottish Government on APD, the airport called for urgent action to ensure that the north-east of Scotland can make a swift recovery.