Birmingham Airport celebrates its busiest year
Birmingham Airport is flying high after recording the busiest year in its 75 year history, with more than 11.6 million passengers passing through its terminal in 2016.
An additional 1.4 million people used the airport, boosting passenger numbers by 14.2 per cent to 11,639,738.
The busiest month was August, with almost 1.3 million passengers, and the busiest day was August 26. Over the course of the year there were six months in which more than a million passengers were recorded and the airport has now seen 22 months of consecutive record breaking growth.
December's passenger figures added to the total as almost 845,000 passengers travelled through the terminal in the final month of 2016 – an increase of 23.7 per cent on December 2015, equivalent to over 161,000 more people.
Both long haul and short haul sectors saw similar levels of growth in December.
Paul Kehoe, chief executive officer at Birmingham Airport, said: "Last year was very fruitful as we celebrated the busiest 12 months in our 75 year history and were crowned the most punctual airport in the world by air travel intelligence company, OAG.
"We have also seen the list of long haul global connections rapidly expand which has resulted in more than a 27 per cent increase. Qatar Airways arrived in March offering eight flights per week to the state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport in the rapidly developing capital of Doha.
"Other new carriers in the past year have included Iberia Express, Blue Air, Czech Airlines, Cobalt and Albastar who have bought low cost seats to popular short haul destinations throughout Eastern and Central Europe. We also saw the introduction of the magnificent Emirates A380 aircraft in March.
"Whilst we have experienced an incredibly exciting year, Birmingham Airport is well-placed to continue growing. We look forward to launching more routes, a wider selection of airlines in 2017 and we plan to invest £100 million before the summer in our terminal and infrastructure facilities."
Overall in 2016 scheduled traffic accounted for 89 per cent of the total and charter holiday traffic made up 11 per cent.
In December Caribbean, African, Asian and Middle Eastern destinations saw the greatest increase in passengers compared to the same month last year.
Scheduled destinations that proved a big draw were Madrid, Poznan, Warsaw and Budapest., while charter destinations that saw significant growth were Sofia, Shannon, Chambery and Tenerife.
