Airport starts New Year with plans for airline growth and terminal development Following a record-breaking year, Edinburgh Airport has started 2015 in a strong position with passenger figures up 7% on 2014.

The airport saw significant rises in both domestic and international traffic thanks to various short haul and long haul routes operating which weren’t in place last year.

A total of 628,285 people travelled through Edinburgh Airport in January, a rise of 7% on 2014.

Domestic traffic rose by 7.2% in January with a total of 344,840 passengers travelling through the terminal. This is primarily due to Ryanair’s new three-times daily service to London Stansted and BA Cityflyer’s London City service which is now operating 12 times per day. With FlyBe also launching a new London City service in October and increased British Airways flights, passengers have the choice of over 50 daily London flights.

International passenger numbers also increased significantly with 283,445 people travelling, an increase of 7.1% on 2014. This increase is a result of Ryanair’s new four-times daily service to Dublin, increased capacity on Paris Charles De Gaulle with AirFrance’ HOP! service, as well as Qatar Airways’ five per week service to Doha which started last May.

After enjoying such a record-breaking year in 2014 for passenger numbers, the airport is confident 2015 will be just as successful with various new routes launching this spring, including Etihad Airways’ first route between Scotland and Abu Dhabi and a new service to Madrid with Iberia operating from April.

Just last month the airport announced a new £50 million airside investment plan which will see a new immigration facility and more aircraft stands created, tripling the capacity for larger aircraft over the coming years.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: “Following our record-breaking year in 2014, we’ve started 2015 with a spring in our step and a renewed focus on what we want to deliver for our passengers.

“We saw a great performance from our new domestic services last month, with more new routes launching this spring, and are continuing to develop our facilities for passengers and airlines. The next few months will be an exciting time for our airport.

“With the RBS 6Nations now underway, we’re expecting to be busy with thousands of rugby fans travelling through the airport over the next few weeks. Edinburgh is a city with year-round appeal, from our amazing festivals to Michelin-star restaurants, there is something for everyone.

“We want to show our passengers a good time and will be pulling out all the stops to ensure they have the very best experience in 2015.”

Edinburgh         2015              2014               Change

Domestic         344,840        321,482               7.2%

International     283,445        264,702               7.1%

Total                 628,285        587,194               7.0%

The moving annual total for the year ending 31 January was 10,211,242.