BOOMING audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe and expansion by Ryanair have lifted passengers at the city's airport by 42,000 in August, in its fifth consecutive monthly rise.
The 4.8 per cent increase on a year ago to 928,500 passengers – almost 30,000 a day – also pushed the airport's annual total back above 9 million.
It follows the airport recording its busiest ever month in July, when it handled 955,800 passengers.
Ryanair's routes from Edinburgh have more than quadrupled to 29 since last year and it accounts for around one in five of the airport's passengers.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe enjoyed record-breaking ticket sales, up by 21 per cent on 2008.
The boost came as Glasgow airport's fortunes slumped further, with 713,700 passengers – 13.4 per cent less than a year ago. Glasgow has lost more than one million – or one in eight – passengers – in a year, with the total now down to 7.4 million, the lowest for more than seven years.
BAA Scotland, which runs the country's three busiest airports, blamed the recession for both Glasgow's slide and a 9.8 per cent fall at Aberdeen to 269,800 passengers.
Annual passengers at Aberdeen were down more than 9 per cent to fewer than 3.1 million.
However, the operator said it remained confident growth would return at both airports once the economy picked up.
A spokeswoman said: "With five consecutive months of rising passenger numbers, Edinburgh Airport is one of the few UK airports currently enjoying a period of growth, largely as a result of Ryanair's substantial growth and the success of this year's Edinburgh Festival.
"International traffic was particularly strong as the city welcomed tens of thousands of overseas visitors for this year's Festival, the most successful ever.
"Aberdeen and Glasgow, in common with almost every UK airport, experienced a drop. This reflects the continuing impact of the global recession, which has seen demand for air travel fall across the globe.
"Quite simply, fewer people are taking holidays and weekend breaks, or flying on business, as a result of the recession."
BAA said the expected recovery would be hampered by increases in air passenger duty (APD) in November.
The tax will rise from £10 to £11 for flights within Europe, and from £40 to £45-55 for longer routes, depending on distance.
The BAA spokeswoman said: "Unfortunately, the recovery will not be aided by the UK government's forthcoming rise in APD, which stands in sharp contrast to a number of other European countries which are reducing taxes on air travel."
Ryanair also attacked the APD increases. A spokesman for the airline said: "Ryanair will grow by 15 per cent to 67 million passengers this year. Airports like Edinburgh can benefit from this growth but there can be no doubt that Gordon Brown's £11 APD is devastating tourism and traffic throughout the UK."
