Monarch launched a new service to Larnaca at the end of the month
Birmingham International Airport handled 674,301 passengers
during March 2009 - a fall of 7.7% on the previous year
.
Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport's Chief Executive Officer,
explains: "These latest statistics again underline the challenging
economic environment we are facing at the moment, conditions
that are affecting the whole of the aviation industry, both here
and abroad. I have always said that this year will be a testing
one, but let's not forget that Birmingham is performing better
than the majority of other UK airports and we continue
to see the launch of new routes and airlines
from the Midlands' premier airport"
.
"During March we saw a 7.7% fall in traffic compared to 2008,
which mirrors the performance of February, illustrating the
resilience of Birmingham when compared to other airports,
which have seen a month-on-month downward trend"
.
"In recent weeks we have been able to celebrate anumber
of positive announcements, among them the granting of
planning permission for a runway extension by Solihull
Metropolitan Borough Council, Emirates' decision to
increase capacity to Dubai, and the launch of Monarch's
Larnaca and bmi regional's Aberdeen services, all
representing great news for local travellers"
.
During March significant growth was achieved on
scheduled flights to destinations including -
Inverness (+107%), Krakow (+92.1%), Shannon (+56.9%),
Prague (+46.3%), Alicante (+21.8%), Grenoble (+18.8%),
Malaga (+15.6%), Dubai (+6.8%), Hamburg (+5.5%)
and Dublin (+1.6%)
.
Charter traffic which experienced growth included -
Egypt (+60.5%) and Mexico (+14.7%)
.
Scheduled traffic accounted for 83.5% of the total
passenger traffic in March whilst charter passengers
made up the remaining 16.5%
.
Thursday 16 April 2009