Birmingham Airport has celebrated its most successful year to date, handling 10.2 million passengers during the 2015 calendar year – almost 5% more than the previous year. 2015 also ended with the busiest December on record as almost 700,000 passengers used the airport, up 10% from December 2014.
Overall, 10,188,889 passengers travelled through the airport in 2015 – the first time the airport has broken the ten million passenger mark in a calendar year in its 75 year history. Records were also set for its busiest month ever in August and for the busiest day ever on 28th August 2015.
In December, 683,291 passengers travelled through Birmingham Airport’s terminal, 60,000 more passengers than the previous year and the busiest December on record.
Long haul traffic saw the greatest increase during the year, with a 21.4% increase from 2014 due to greater capacity from Birmingham to destinations such as Dubai, Delhi, Amritsar and Beijing.
Paul Kehoe, Chief Executive of Birmingham Airport said:
“2015 was a fantastic year for Birmingham Airport as we not only handled more passengers than ever before but we also broke the news that eleven new airlines were being added to our growing list of carriers.
“With brand new services launched to Reykjavik, New York, Madrid, Warsaw, Budapest and Poznan, plus additional frequencies added to key hubs such as Dubai, Istanbul and Delhi, we are seeing more airlines realise the huge benefits of flying to and from Birmingham due to its extensive catchment area and strong economy.
“Looking forward, 2016 is set to be even busier as we get set for the launch of Qatar, Blue Air, Iberia and Czech Airlines, as well as welcoming the Emirates A380 aircraft each day from March.”
Overall in 2015, scheduled traffic grew by 5.2% and made up 84% of the overall figure. Charter grew by 3.8% and made up 16% of the total for 2015. This included twice-weekly direct flights to Beijing in the summer of 2015.
Scheduled traffic which experienced more than 100% growth included Madrid, Budapest, Turin, Salzburg, Reykjavik, New York- JFK and Warsaw.
Scheduled traffic in December accounted for 91.7% of the total with charter passengers making up the remaining 8.3%.
The greatest growth for new scheduled routes in the month of December was to Barcelona (+207.7%) followed by 100% growth on new routes to Palma de Mallorca, New York-JFK, Warsaw, Madrid and Budapest.
Charter routes which experienced significant growth in December were Fuerteventura (+188.4%), Madeira (+132.9%), Gran Canaria (+109.8%), Cancun (+85.5%) and Antalya (+72.7%).