Passenger numbers soar to more than 9m at Birmingham Airport
PASSENGER numbers have soared at Birmingham Airport – smashing through the nine million mark for the year.
The numbers were swelled as the airport enjoyed the second busiest August in its history – a month which saw it achieve its busiest day of the year so far.
Paul Kehoe, chief executive of Birmingham Airport, said: “These passenger figures clearly demonstrate there is strong demand for flights from Birmingham. We’ve seen a period of sustained growth throughout the past 12 months, welcoming nine million passengers to the airport.
“We’ve also enjoyed a strong summer performance too, recording the second busiest month in our history, as passengers enjoy the benefits of our state-of-the-art facilities and expanding network of flights. These growing passenger figures, coupled with the extension of our runway, which is due to be complete in spring 2014, certainly provides encouraging signs for the future.”
Passenger numbers at the airport have been given a significant boost following the introduction of new airlines including Air India, which last month began operating flights four times weekly to Delhi and Amritsar, using the Boeing 787-8 ‘Dreamliner’ aircraft.
The airport handled more than one million passengers last month, a 2% increase compared to the same period last year.
August also saw the airport record its busiest day of the year so far, as 36,781 people passed through the terminal on Friday 23rd, the day before the Bank Holiday weekend.
The airport said the continued expansion of other airlines including Monarch and Aer Lingus had also been a key factor in attracting new passengers to Birmingham. Turkish Airlines increased its daily flight programme from seven to 10 flights a week to Istanbul back in April, providing onward connections to 221 destinations worldwide.
Between September 2012 and August 2013, popular destinations for passengers flying from Birmingham included Amsterdam, Paris and New York. However, Dublin proved to be most popular, closely followed by Dubai, for onward connections to the Far East and Australia.
