Isle of Man's airport reports 'steady' recovery

Mail to and from the island has risen by almost 30%

Passenger numbers through the Isle of Man's airport should make a "slow and steady recovery" after the freezing winter, its director says.

The low temperatures and heavy snow which hit the UK in January was blamed for a 7% reduction in passengers.

The latest March figures show a 1% decrease on the same month last year.

The route to Liverpool saw a 9% increase, with an overall rise of 450 passengers travelling to and from north-west England.

'Not unexpected'

Scheduled service passengers numbers also rose, but routes to Glasgow, Belfast and Leeds saw a fall in travellers.

The airport figures also show the amount of mail flown into and out of the island has increased in recent months with an additional 54 tonnes in March, a rise of almost 30% over March 2009.

"The slight decrease for March was not unexpected," said Ann Reynolds, Airport Director.

"Recognising that the industry as a whole still has a long way to go to restore the buoyancy in the market of the past, we had expected a decrease of about 2.4%.

"The fact that Easter straddled both March and April this year has also helped to boost traffic towards the end of the month."