Birmingham Airport reports busiest ever year
Birmingham Airport has recorded the busiest year in its history, seeing over 11.6 million passengers pass through its terminal in 2016.
In total 11,639,738 passengers travelled through the airport over the course of the year giving an increase of 14.2% compared to 2015 – equivalent to just over 1.4 million more people.
The busiest month was August when almost 1.3 million passengers were recorded in a single month and the busiest day was 26 August. Over the course of the year there were six months in which over a million passengers were recorded and the airport has now seen 22 months of consecutive record breaking growth.
December’s passenger figures significantly contributed to this total. Almost 845,000 passengers travelled through the terminal in the final month of 2016 – an increase of 23.7% year on year, equivalent to over 161,000 more people.
Both long-haul and short-haul sectors saw similar levels of growth in December with long haul up by 27.3% and short haul up by 23% year-on-year.
‘Most punctual airport’
Paul Kehoe, the airport’s CEO, 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% increase. Qatar Airways arrived in March offering daily flights to the state of the art Hamad International Airport in the rapidly developing capital of Doha.”
Other new carriers in the past year included Iberia Express, Blue Air, Czech Airlines, Cobalt and Albastar, all offering low cost fares to popular short-haul destinations in Eastern and Central Europe.
“We also saw the introduction of the magnificent Emirates A380 aircraft in March,” added Kehoe. “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.”
