A warning has been given that Dundee Airport could lose all its scheduled flights as figures showed a fall in passenger numbers of more than 55%.
Owners HIAL confirmed only 2,003 people flew to or from Dundee last month.
Dundee’s figures have plummeted since Loganair’s franchise partner FlyBe withdrew its scheduled flights to Belfast and Birmingham in December because of lack of passenger interest.
That left only Cityjet’s flights to London as Dundee’s only scheduled service and, with passengers being charged £400 for a day return ticket, customers have not been queueing up to fly.
HIAL announced passenger numbers at its 11 airports increased by 2.2% last month, with 87,476 passengers, an increase of 1,869 from the same month last year.
Growth was strongest at Sumburgh (33.3%) and Wick John o’ Groats (61.5%). Passenger numbers fell at Dundee, Campbeltown, Inverness and Stornoway.
The biggest fall was at Dundee, which was 55.6% down, meaning Dundee continues to attract fewer passengers than Benbecula.
Inglis Lyon, managing director of HIAL said he hoped for continued growth over the summer.
He added: “Dundee remains a key focus area for us and we continue to talk to airlines and commercial operators about new business opportunities. However, in this challenging economic market, progress has been slow.”
A spokesman for HIAL added: “There’s no doubt that market conditions are challenging.
“The sluggish economy, competition from Edinburgh and relatively low demand from Dundee, combined with a high degree of risk aversion in the airline industry, makes attracting new business difficult.”
Jim Watt, managing director of Tayside Aviation, the pilot training company based at Dundee, accepted the aviation industry was experiencing difficulties at present.
However, he believed HIAL could do more to promote the city’s airport.
“There are issues to do with the cost of fuel and other customer service matters like making passengers pay at least £10 a day to leave their cars in the car park which don’t make it easy to attract passengers,” he said.
“The passenger figures are not good and, if HIAL are not careful, Dundee could disappear as a base for scheduled air services.”
Tayside Aviation accounts for 94% of flight movements at Dundee and has contracts with the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the Hong Kong Chinese Government to train pilots.
“Our business is doing well but Dundee is not an easy airport to operate from,” he added.
“HIAL really do need to address the many customer relations issues to attract more flights here.”
Jim Pickett, president of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, said: “I wish HIAL every success in trying to attract new airlines to Dundee in the present hard market for these companies at the moment.
“But it is very important for Dundee Airport to attract the right destination connections with competitive prices to attract continual usage.”