Edinburgh Airport has celebrated its busiest ever April with new routes helping to drive the increase in passenger numbers. In total 1,206,540 passengers passed through the airport last month, up 5.7 per cent on the same month in 2017.

The international market grew 7.2 per cent year on year due to 21 new routes which have launched since last April, while the domestic market grew by 3.1 per cent.

Gordon Dewar, Edinburgh Airport chief executive, said: “It’s great to see growth in both our domestic and international markets, especially after a flat month in March due to the Beast from the East, and this has resulted in our busiest April ever.

“We’re flying to more destinations than ever before with 22 new routes launching since this time last year, 21 of those to international destinations which is expanding our reach and opening Scotland to even more of the world.

“We’ve recently announced two fantastic additions in Beijing with Hainan and Dubai with Emirates and they will attract even more tourists and expand business opportunities, as will our direct flight to Washington with United which comes online later this month – these are all immensely exciting for the capital and Scotland.”

New international routes launched since last April include Ryanair flights to Carcassonne, Corfu, Prague and Tenerife and Norwegian’s long-haul routes to Providence and Stewart in the USA.

In the domestic market easyJet launched a new service to Jersey on March 31 this year.