RONALDSWAY Airport has recorded a minute increase in the number of passengers who travelled through the airport in November.

Figures show that 55,652 passengers travelled to and from the Isle of Man which is almost a one per cent increase on the November 2010 figures.

November's figures also show that 500 more passengers used the airport compared to the previous month.

Airport director Ann Reynolds said: "Naturally after the recent years where, like the whole of the UK and European air travel industry, we have seen a decline in passengers we would now like to see more positive growth. 

"However given the current state of the UK and European economy I am pleased that we are still achieving - and generally slightly exceeding - 2010 passenger levels.

"In fact for seven out of the last eight months we have topped last year's monthly throughput and most important retained all of our scheduled service routes."

The Liverpool route – operated by Flybe and easyJet – saw the biggest increase in November with just over 14,000 passengers travelling. This represents a 15 per cent increase from November 2010.

Other Flybe routes that faired well included the Southampton route which carried more than 1,000 passengers, the Bristol route which saw an increase of 267 passengers compared to November 2010, and the Birmingham route which saw an increase of 4.8 per cent.

The Glasgow route, operated by Loganair, showed an increase of 4.1 per cent and Aer Arran's London City route transported almost 4,000 passengers showing an increase of 14.8 per cent.

Despite carrying more than 9,000 passengers the Manchester route recorded a decline in the number of passenger using the service. In November last year more than 10,000 passengers travelled.

The Luton route was the biggest casualty of the month dropping 1,252 passengers compared to November 2010 and showing a 45.3 per cent decrease.

Manx2.com's routes also suffered in November with four out of five recording a passenger decrease. The Belfast City, Gloucester, Leeds and Newcastle routes all recorded decreases compared to November 2010. The Blackpool route showed a marginal increase of just 0.1 per cent.

Mrs Reynolds continued: "We do expect this winter to again be a difficult one for the airline industry and our airlines have introduced some reductions in service frequencies. This is bound to affect our traffic over the leaner months especially during the early part of 2012."

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