SCOTLAND’S THREE largest airports all saw a drop-off in passenger numbers during February, new figures have revealed.
Glasgow Airport saw the number of passenger it handled fall 1.5% to 423,000 during February while Aberdeen a stablemate in the Heathrow Airport Holdings (Hah) portfolio suffered a 1.2% dip to 239,800 during the month.
However, during the 12 months to the end of February the two airports carried a total of 10.5 million passengers, 4.6% ahead of the total traffic seen in the equivalent period in 2011.
In the UK as a whole, Hah airports handled 82.23m passengers over the past 12 months a 0.9% rise on the year previous.
Aberdeen commercial director Carol Benzie said the grounding of some North Sea helicopters had hit passenger numbers.
Edinburgh Airport, which is owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, saw a steeper decline in numbers over February.
The airport handled 563,916 travellers during the months 7.8% below the amount achieved the previous year.
The number of people flying domestically from Edinburgh was 6.2% lower at 322,701 while departures to foreign climes were 9.8% down at 241,215.
However, Edinburgh said the figures were skewed by the extra leap year day in February 2012 and said that on a like-for-like basis the drop was 4.7%.
Regional airport operator HIAL which counts Dundee among its 11 airports nationwide has yet to publish its figures.
In January, Dundee handled 2,186 passengers down 47.4% on the previous year following the withdrawal of two scheduled flights.
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