September saw a significant rise in the number of passengers at Highlands and Islands Airports.

Airport news for UK Airports on 13/10/2011.

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The news comes via Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL), which said that its 11 airports saw 118,786 passengers last month. The figure marks an impressive increase from numbers seen at the same time in 2010 and amounted to a 4.4 per cent rise overall.

Inverness saw the most significant increase -up 11.2 per cent from the same period just one year ago- with a total of about 60,000 passengers. Similarly, Stornoway Airport hosted over 11,600 passengers, a 5.9 per cent rise, whilst Sumburgh’s airport saw 3.6 percent more passengers amounting to a grand total of 15,751 for the month.

Inglis Lyon, HIAL’s managing director said regarding the news that September had been ‘fantastic’ for Inverness Airport. He said the improvement could be largely attributed to the new route to and from Amsterdam, which had commenced service on 5 September and has proved popular thus far. He added that corporate events had also contributed, as did new service from Belfast, Gatwick and Luton airports.

HIAL’s figures are up 9.7 per cent for the year to date on the same period in 2010. The organisation, which is subsidised by the Scottish Government, operates airport facilities at Kirkwall, Islay, Inverness, Wick, Tiree, Stornoway, Benbecula, Sumburgh, Campbletown, Barra and Dundee.

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