March’s passenger figures have produced yet another month of outstanding growth for Birmingham Airport. Up by almost 100,000 passengers compared to the same month last year, the airport has recorded 13.6% year-on-year growth and is celebrating thirteen months of consecutive record breaking growth.
Long-haul routes again experienced the greatest increase in demand with a strong 22.5% passenger growth since last year, with particular growth seen on scheduled services to North America (+61.3%) and the Middle East (+34.6%).
March also saw the airport record a total of 10,439,606 passengers handled at the airport over the last rolling 12 month period, 5.4% more than at the end of the same period last year and equating to over half a million more passengers.
Paul Kehoe, Chief Executive Officer at Birmingham Airport, said: “This rolling 12 month period has been our best ever and we ended it with a very significant and exciting March. We welcomed Iberia Express, Blue Air, Qatar and the fantastic Emirates A380 to the airport - all of which we are looking forward to supporting throughout the summer season.
“Norwegian celebrated its first anniversary at the airport in March and we also received the news that Ryanair will be increasing its winter 2016 schedule by 45%. This was in addition to a host of new routes starting with our established carriers.
“These new airlines and routes are expected to bring a lot more people to our airport as travellers take advantage of the expanding choice available from Birmingham. We look forward to welcoming these new customers and celebrating the growth this will bring.”
Scheduled traffic continues to be very significant for the month of March, accounting for over 91% of the total. This sector saw a 16.7% increase, with significant year-on-year passenger growth to Barcelona (+234%), Milan (+95.7%), Malaga (+62%), Dubai (+34.3%), and Istanbul (+19.2%).
Charter traffic made up 9% of the total March figure, which saw growth to Salzburg (+155.1%), Fuerteventura (+134.3%), Cancun (+56.7%), Gran Canaria (+47.6%) and Montego Bay (+24.6%).