Dundee air passenger numbers have fallen to their lowest level in many years, according to new figures.
There was a 27.6% reduction in the number of people who flew into or out of the Riverside airport in the three months to the end of June.
The figure of 5,432 passengers covers the scheduled route between Dundee and London Stansted and those who flew on holiday charter flights to and from Jersey and private charter aircraft.
Controversially, the figures cover the period of the hastily arranged stopgap service operated by Flybe-Loganair, where planes have often flown with only a handful of fare-paying customers.
The service took off only after a £400,000 subsidy from Dundee City Council and the Scottish Government, an arrangement condemned by Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar, who said public money would have been better spent on better transport links to his airport, where flights are more plentiful and cheaper.
Mr Dewar said: “We maintain our belief that this subsidy is a colossal waste of money. New routes just announced by Ryanair to Stansted from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports show that this route can be supported from Scotland without draining the public purse.
“We struggle to understand the benefit to Scotland.”
Dundee-London Stansted flights starting at £150 return were vigorously defended by the city council on grounds of being vital to the local economy.
The interim arrangements have since been made more permanent thanks to a £2.85 million Public Service Obligation agreement for the next two years.
Cautious optimism was expressed by Loganair and the council that Dundee passenger numbers would improve, but figures for the three months published by Dundee Airport owners HIAL suggest they will be rising from their lowest ever level.
Numbers had been steadily declining in the time of previous operators Cityjet, which axed routes to Birmingham and Belfast before grounding their final route to London City because of low demand.
The HIAL figures for Dundee from the first quarter to June show that the 5,432 people flew to or from Dundee were down 27.6% from the same period in 2013.
That was the second heaviest fall of any of HIAL’s 11 airports.