 Annual passenger numbers for the three airports have risen by 2.7% |
Passenger figures at Scotland's busiest airports have been boosted by sports fans travelling to international fixtures, new statistics have shown. More than 1.5 million passengers used Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports in November, a rise of 7.1% compared with the same time last year.
Among the fixtures were rugby's autumn tests at Murrayfield and Old Firm matches against Benfica and Auxerre.
Edinburgh was the busiest airport last month with 663,629 passengers.
That was a rise of 4.6% compared with last year's figure.
BAA Scotland said international traffic soared by more than 27% as thousands flocked to the capital to see Scotland take on Romania, the Pacific Islands and Australia.
The day before the Australia game was the busiest of the month, with 29,011 passengers.
Meanwhile, Old Firm success on the football pitch saw passenger numbers rise at Glasgow Airport by 5.7% to 627,961.
About 10,000 fans travelled to Lisbon in Portugal and Auxerre in France to see Rangers and Celtic in action.
Crunch match
The day after Rangers' crunch match against Auxerre was the busiest day of the month for Glasgow, with 24,937 passengers.
At Aberdeen Airport, passenger numbers grew by 17.4% to 278,617 thanks to several new routes from the north east, including flights to Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Exeter and Tenerife.
Stephen Baxter, from BAA Scotland, said: "These figures show the underlying confidence of the airline industry in Scotland.
"With more than two dozen new international services launched this year, international traffic has grown by almost 9%."
Annual passenger numbers across the three airports now stand at 20.5 million, up 2.7% on the same time last year.
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These figures show the underlying confidence of the airline industry in Scotland
