City's airport growth grounded by credit crunch

THE number of passengers using Edinburgh Airport slumped in December as the credit crunch took hold, new figures released today have revealed.

Airport operator BAA said the decline in passenger numbers seen in 2008 got worse in December, with passenger numbers down 2.5 per cent on December 2007 at 606,700.

In the full year, passenger numbers declined by 0.5 per cent to 8.99 million.

The figures are a clear sign that the slowdown in consumer spending as the UK enters recession is impacting on the number of people using the airport. They follow years of annual growth at Edinburgh Airport.

And they come just months after the company put plans to expand on to the Royal Highland Showground on hold.

However, the extent of the decline at Edinburgh Airport in 2008 was less severe than all six of the other UK airports owned by BAA.

Overall, BAA suffered a 6.9 per cent decline in December, and 2.8 per cent for the whole year.

Glasgow Airport passenger numbers declined by 10.7 per cent in December, with full-year numbers down 6.8 per cent at 8.1m.

It is expected that the figures have been influenced by airlines trimming the number of services they operate.

Despite the gloomy figures, the company remains confident that passenger numbers will again return to growth.

In a statement, BAA said: "In total the number of air transport movements was 5.8 per cent lower than last December as many airlines trimmed services in line with weakening demand.

"After a three-month sequence of gradually declining figures air cargo tonnage fell by 15.1 per cent in December.

"BAA expects, on the evidence of historic economic downturns, that the long-term prospects for growth remain good and passenger volumes will recover."

The total number of air transport movements at Edinburgh Airport was down 2.2 per cent at 8116 in December. The full-year decline was 0.6 per cent.