Profits soar in Birmingham Airport's busiest year

At the same time it almost doubled the amount it was spending on try to cope with its growth, including a project to upgrade its baggage handling system.

Pre-tax profits at the airport rocketed by more than 50 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March, to £38.1 million, according to accounts just filed at Companies House.

Turnover rose by £15m to £145.8m as passenger numbers rose 14 per cent to a record 11.9 million. It was the sixth consecutive year of rising passenger numbers at the airport, which is growing twice as fast as the UK aviation industry as a whole.

Double digit growth was down to a combination of rising passenger numbers of existing routes, new routes to Lisbon, Luxembourg and Paris Orly as well as the arrival of new airlines such as Alba Star, Cobalt Air, Jet2 and Czech Airlines. Ryanair increased its flights, while long haul services benefited from increasing flights to Doha by Qatar Airways and to Dubai by Emirates, which now operates the double-decker Airbus A380.

The most popular destinations from Birmingham were Dublin, Dubai and Amsterdam.

Airport bosses are predicting further growth this year, with British Airways launching weekly summer services and Jet2 adding 18 more routes.

The strategic report in the accounts noted: "There does however continue to be ongoing uncertainty with the market following the Brexit vote last June and the subsequent triggering of Article 50; however it remains too early to tell what the impact on volumes and the pattern of travel will be as a result of this."

The airport's income from the charges it levies on airlines for using its facilities rose by 14.2 per cent last year, while the commercial income from duty free shopping, catering and property rental rose 10 per cent.

Increasing numbers of employees due to expansion and the increase in air traffic control staff saw workforce numbers at the airport rise by more than 80 to 703 during the year. The airport also had to cope with higher levels of equipment maintenance and repairs due to the demand of rising number of passengers and baggage.

During the year an interim dividend of £18.6m was paid out to the airport's owners – the West Midlands local authorities and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan – and a final dividend of £17.8m will also be paid.

The year also saw the airport spending more than £18 million on projects such as upgrading the baggage system, installing new self-service check-in kiosks and a bag drop area as well as generally increasing capacity, increasing bus services and security.

The report admits "there were some challenges in maintaining customer service levels during peak periods", with a drop in the number of passengers queuing for 10 minutes or less.

The report also pays tribute to former chief executive Paul Kehoe, who retired this summer; "The board would like to express their grateful thanks to Paul for the tremendous contribution he has made to Birmingham Airport during the last nine years.

"Under his leadership the airport has built relationships with new carriers, grown passenger numbers to more than 12m and delivered significant economic value to the region."