Flying high: Edinburgh Airport sets sights on Ryder Cup after August passenger numbers soar to over one million

After enjoying its busiest August ever, Edinburgh Airport is now gearing up for the Ryder Cup – continuing an amazing summer of sport for Scotland.

A total of 1,065,783 people passed through Edinburgh Airport last month, an increase of 2.9% on 2013, and the airport’s second consecutive ‘million month’ this year.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: “The Ryder Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and we’ve been busy preparing to make sure we play our part. Our new services to Chicago and Philadelphia have been a fantastic draw for golf fans and we’re expecting hundreds of thousands of international passengers over the coming weeks.

“With the world’s eyes on Scotland, we want to give our passengers and the US and European teams a welcome to remember.

“We’ve had a record-breaking summer and a bumper August is the icing on the cake. Exceeding our 10 million passenger mark and recording two consecutive million months are amazing achievements and I want to thank all passengers who helped us reach these milestones.

“However, it’s important that we continue to focus on providing our passengers with a great airport experience and work hard to make the rest of 2014 equally successful.”

August saw 428,030 domestic passengers travel through Edinburgh Airport, a 1.9% decrease on 2013. A total of 637,753 international passengers travelled through the airport last month, a 6.4% increase on the same period last year.

The popularity of easyJet’s services to destinations such as Krakow, Alicante and Lisbon contributed to the increase in both arriving and departing traffic at Edinburgh Airport in August with Scots heading off on their summer breaks.

Virgin Atlantic Little Red’s service to Heathrow, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines also performed well in August.

The moving annual total for the year ending 31 August 2014 was 10,073,153.