BMI blamed for drop in Highland’s passengers
03.08.09
The number of passengers flying in and out of airports in the Highlands and Islands fell by 3 percent in the past year, after seven years of growth. The drop to 1,296,303 passengers was primarily due to the withdrawal of BMI's Inverness - Heathrow service last March, Highlands and Islands Airports (HIAL) said.
The firm, which runs eleven airports added new routes in 2008, including a service from Inverness to Jersey, as well as a weekly Inverness - Düsseldorf link. Flybe also increased its services from Inverness to include Birmingham and Manchester. New flights between Dundee and Belfast and Birmingham were brought in, along with Sumburgh-Bergen and Kirkwall-Bergen routes.
However, these were not enough to make up for the loss of the Heathrow route. Grenville Johnston, HIAL's chairman, said: ‘Our passenger numbers reflected national trends and demonstrated all airports are subject to the same pressures in the current climate.’
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