By Brian Smith, aviation reporter

DUNDEE HAS become the first airport operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) to show a significant decrease in traffic as a result of the recent economic turmoil.

While the total number of passengers using airports in the Highlands and Islands has increased by 2% in the past six months compared to the previous year, Dundee showed a marked fall.

The figures for Dundee Airport show a running total of 35,195 passengers, down 7.9%, and 20,473 aircraft movements, down 5.5%.

Those numbers carry added weight because they include, for the first time, a direct comparison on all three scheduled routes served from Dundee.

The running totals show that just over 3000 fewer passengers used Dundee this year.

Ill-fated flyWhoosh flights to Birmingham and Belfast started last May and were picked up again this May by the Flybe franchise operated by Loganair.

HIAL managing director Inglis Lyon said performance for the summer had been good despite unprecedented difficulties.

Mr Lyon said, “Within this context, however, we recognise that the current aviation climate is very difficult due to a combination of fuel prices impacting on airlines’ operations and wider economic factors creating uncertainty in demand for travel.

“Our airports are not immune from these industry-wide factors with Dundee, where traffic to date is down on last year, being a case in point.

“The focus for us, as we move into the traditionally lower traffic levels of the winter months, is to work with the airlines to support their routes and ensure that the scheduled network continues to provide essential air connectivity to the Highlands and Islands and Tayside.

“The priority is for routes to be maintained and if this means alterations to frequency in the winter then that is something we have to accept as the airlines have to react according to the market conditions they face.”

Inverness maintained last year’s business levels while there were small falls at HIAL’s next three busiest airports, Kirkwall, Stornaway and Sumburgh, of between 1% and 4%.

Referring to HIAL’s 10 airports, excluding Dundee, Mr Lyon said, “Notwithstanding that all UK airports face a hard winter, recent announcements have brought some positive news for the network in terms of service developments for 2009 which will create new opportunities to grow business and leisure traffic.”

Developments indicate a positive trend next year with Loganair due to increase its Sumburgh—Bergen flights and introduce a Kirkwall—Bergen service.

Charter operators Discover Jersey, Newmarket Holidays and Thomson have put their 2009 programmes from Inverness on sale in recent weeks. HIAL also expects to confirm a direct link from Inverness to Germany for next year at the end of this month.

Passenger throughput for the 10 airports in the region operated by HIAL was 711,905 for the six months to the end of September. Total aircraft movements for the airports in the same period increased by 3.8% to 58,191.

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