Edinburgh airport has cited Ryanair’s decision to axe its Stansted route for its first fall in monthly passengers numbers for nearly five years.
Passenger numbers fell 1% year-on-year at Edinburgh in October to 1.31 million, which chief executive Gordon Dewar said ended “almost 60 months continues growth”.
The exception came in March 2018 when passengers numbers fell 0.1% owing to the severe weather from the so-called Beast from the East.
Edinburgh said the subsequent fall in domestic passengers after Ryanair cut its Stansted route had a big influence" on overall numbers.
“The route was reduced to four weekly from four daily in June 2019 before ending completely last month,” said the airport in a statement.
Domestic passenger numbers fell 6.1% in October to 458,686. However, Edinburgh’s overall performance during October was bolstered by 2% growth in international passengers to 850,484.