Huge increase in NI airports passenger numbers
The number of passengers using Northern Ireland’s airports has more than doubled since 1990, it emerged today.
The total passengers flying to and from the North’s three main airports - Belfast International, Belfast City and City of Derry – increased by 131% in 14 years, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.
The airports handled a total of 6.6 million passengers in 2004, compared with 2.8 million in 1990.
The biggest increase in volume terms was seen at Belfast International airport, at which numbers rose from 2.3 million passengers in 1990 to 4.3 million last year, making it the seventh-biggest UK regional airport in terms of total passenger numbers.
Numbers at Belfast City airport increased from 600,000 to 2.1 million over the same period.
City of Derry airport hosted 237,000 passengers last year, compared to 41,000 in 1990.
The CAA, the aviation industry’s regulator, said that the biggest growth had been in scheduled services to Europe, where the 1993 ‘open skies’ policy has led to the rise of low-fare airlines.
Since 1990, Northern Ireland has acquired seven international scheduled routes where previously it had none, covering destinations such as Dublin, Cork, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Prague.
Services from Belfast to Rome, Berlin and Geneva are currently in the pipeline.
Harry Bush, a spokesman for the CAA, said: “The study shows how UK regional airports, and the airlines that serve them, now provide a much richer set of travel choices to their customers.
“The growth in services to European cities has been particularly strong, showing how well the opportunities afforded by the liberalisation of the EU aviation market have been exploited.”
