Passenger numbers continue to pace 2010 levels

The number of passengers using Isle of Man Airport for last month continue to be close to 2010 levels, although November recorded a slight increase of just under 1% over November 2010. 55652 passengers passed through the Island’s Airport, just over 500 more than last the same month last year. This trend of pacing the 2010 levels witnessed in recent months has continued, with the last 5 months seeing an increase over the same period last year of just 0.4%.

Airport Director, Ann Reynolds was comfortable that November had again produced a solid performance for the Airport. “Naturally, after the recent years where, like the whole of the UK and European air travel industry, we have seen a decline in passengers, we would now like to see more positive growth. However, given the current state of the UK and European economy, I am pleased that we are still achieving - and generally slightly exceeding - 2010 passenger levels,” she said. “In fact, for seven out of the last eight months we have topped last year’s monthly throughput and, most important, retained all of our scheduled service routes.”

The additional 1070 passengers that travelled on the daily Flybe service between the Isle of Man and Southampton in November provided a substantial boost to the numbers. This was the first time for some years that the Southampton route, which continues on to Brussels, has operated year round. Again, it was the combined Flybe and easyJet service to Liverpool which saw the biggest increase, with over 14,000 passengers flying between the two points, the highest November figure for six years and 15% more than in November 2010. This meant that all Northwest routes from the Island, including Flybe’s Manchester and the Manx2.com Blackpool routes, notched up a 4.4% gain over 2010.

Another improved route was the Aer Arann London City service which saw a 14.5% increase, and whilst traffic between the Island and London was slightly down, 47% more passengers flew to and from the South and South West region of the UK.

However, Ann issued a word of caution for the approaching winter months. “We do expect this winter to again be a difficult one for the airline industry and our airlines have introduced some reductions in service frequencies,” she added. This is bound to affect our traffic over the leaner months, especially during the early part of 2012.”

Departmental Member for Ports, David Callister MLC, whilst recognizing that the winter season would be tough, was also cautiously optimistic about the coming year for the Island’s air traffic. "We have a solid foundation for 2012 of scheduled routes which are being maintained over the winter, and all the indications are that the direct charter services will also be at least as diverse as the record 2011 programme from the Island,” he said. "We also have Island based tour operators, who together with the retail travel trade here, are showing tremendous innovation and resource to develop, grow and sell both inbound and outbound air travel packages,” he added. “This is vitally important as it not only supports the needs of Island residents, but stimulates support by providing direct access for key Island events such as TT”.

Please click below to access the Passenger figures for November 2011

Downloadable Documents
Nov 11 figures (61 kb) Format:Acrobat PDF File Nov 11 figures

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