Glasgow was Scotland's busiest airport, BBA said

In October alone, 1.96 million passengers used Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.

Undeterred by long queues and travel restrictions amid heightened security, numbers rose by 3.5% in October, compared with the same month last year.

Airport operator BAA Scotland said international traffic grew by 6.8%.

Domestic traffic also recorded a rise of 0.5% as hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers took off for the autumn break.

Friday the 13th of last month - the first day of the autumn break - was recorded as one of the busiest days of the year.

More than 83,000 passengers used the three airports on that day alone.

Fastest growing

The Old Firm in Europe also had an impact, with thousands of fans following Celtic to Lisbon and Rangers to Livorno in Italy.

Alicante, Tenerife and Palma were among the favourite destinations in October, with New York, Orlando and Dubai the most popular long-haul destinations.

In the year to October, the three airports handled 20.5 million passengers, a rise of 2.4% on the previous 12 month period.

Scotland's busiest airport, Glasgow, handled 881,791 passengers in October, a rise of 1.5% on the previous year.

In the year to last month, flyer numbers grew by 0.2% to 8.8 million.

Edinburgh Airport handled 780,889 passengers in October, up 2% on the previous year.

In the year to last month, the capital's airport handled 8.6 million passengers - up 2%.

Aberdeen Airport was the fastest growing airport in the BAA Scotland group, with passenger numbers up 14% to 299,700 last month.