High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Air Services
There were 24.3 million air terminal passengers in 2008, around 0.8 million (3 per cent) less than the previous year and the third highest level ever recorded. There has been almost continuous growth from 1.2 million in 1960, with increases in all but six of the years since then.
Low-cost airlines have contributed to the rapid growth in recent years. In 2008, more than half the passengers who used Scottish airports were travelling to or from other UK airports - principally London Heathrow (3.1 million), Gatwick (1.6 million), Stansted (1.2 million), Luton (0.9 million), Belfast (0.8 million) and Birmingham (0.9 million). International passenger numbers were greatest for flights to/from Amsterdam (1.1 million), Dublin (0.9 million) and Paris, Charles de Gaulle (0.5 million).
Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) operates 10 airports, which served just over 1.2 million terminal passengers in 2008. Over half of these were at Inverness (671,000); most of the rest were at Scatsta (243,000) Stornoway (131,000), Sumburgh (154,000) and Kirkwall (138,000).

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Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
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