The topline story is that airports operator, Highland and Islands Airports Limited [HIAL] finished 2012 on a high with an increase in passengers in December and in the year as a whole.
The 2012 overall results
The end of year figures show that HIAL’s 11 airports handled 1,283,362 passengers in 2012 – an increase of 3.1% on 2011.
Increased activity in the oil and gas sector in the North Sea saw Sumburgh in Shetland the fastest growing airport in the year – up 13.2%, with Wick John O’Groats getting a welcome uplift in fifth place, at +5.1%, also in the wake of the increased energy in the oil business.
Barra saw the second highest growth rate of the year, at +9.0%); followed in third and fourth place by two Argyll airports – at Tiree (+6.8%) and Campbeltown (+5.9%).
Islay enjoyed modest growth of 0.2% but below it, passenger numbers fell at Kirkwall (-0.1%), Stornoway (-1.0%), Benbecula (-1.6%) and Dundee (-11.2%).
Inverness, the group’s busiest airport, ended the year with 614,302 passengers – single handedly supplying almost half – 47.8% of the passengers carried by the entire HIAL portfolio. This Inverness performance was an increase of 3.4% on 2011, with much of the growth the result of increased demand for flybe’s popular Amsterdam service. Recent figures suggest that around 13% of passengers are using the service to connect on to destinations across the world with flybe’s codeshare partner KLM.
A new marketing campaign, featuring a New York city style yellow taxi, has been launched to promote Amsterdam as a global hub for the Highlands. his is the that route development needs to work, thinking not just of linking two destinations, but of opening up further access to attractive onward destinations.
Inglis Lyon, Managing Director of HIAL, says: ‘We are very pleased with our growth record in 2012, particularly given the difficult economic conditions of the past year. There has been a marked growth in oil related traffic at Sumburgh and Wick John O’Groats, while Inverness has continued to benefit from the success of its Amsterdam service. We believe there is scope to expand the frequency of this service and enhance the global connections available via Amsterdam.
‘There is clearly more work to do to attract new services to Dundee and we have been in discussion with a number of carriers. However, given the prevailing economic conditions, it is likely to be some time before we make progress.’
The December 2012 figures
Interestingly, there was a 4.4% increase in passenger numbers in December, with 94,707 passengers across the group, compared to 90,674 in December 2011.
In December, Wick John O’Groats was the fastest growing airport, with no less than a 91.1% increase in passenger numbers – an indicator of the increase it experienced in oil related helicopter and fixed wing traffic. This is specifically down to a recent commercial agreement HIAL has made with Chevron Oil to transfer oil workers from Wick John O’Groats to North Sea oil fields; fixed wing charters; and an increase in the number of passengers flying to Edinburgh.
Similarly, oil sector charters and refueling activity helped boost December’s passenger numbers at Sumburgh by a hefty 41.3%.
Barra, Kirkwall and Tiree also recorded increased traffic, with passenger numbers up 10.9%, 11.8% and 5.9% respectively.
Dundee recorded a drop of 52.8% following the withdrawal of scheduled services to Belfast and Birmingham. At Inverness, passenger numbers fell by 4.3%, a combination of schedule changes and weather related cancellations.
And numbers also fell at Benbecula, Campbeltown, Islay and Stornoway.
The interesting pictures
The Barra bounce, following the massive success of the television series, An Island Parish, was strong enough still even to defeat the darkest month of the year. Following the oil-accelerated growths at Sumburgh and Wick John O’ Groats, which took the top two growth places for December, Barra came in ahead of everywhere else in the HIAL airports. Of the ten in the group, five showed growth and five a decrease.
Dundee is having a disappointing time. Losing its scheduled services to Belfast and Birmingham will have contributed strongly to its December slump of 52.8% and its overall drop of 11.2% for the year. This is underlined by its performance in November, a month before losing those routes. Then it showed growth on its London City route and additional charter and business aviation traffic, resulting in a 4.9% increase in passengers in that month.
In the Argyll trio of HIAL airports, Campbeltown, having been +33.7% in November pitched into the fag end of the year with a big drop of -17.% in December – but its performance over the year showed an overall rise of 5.%. This has to show room for growth – with good marketing – and the welcome recent news of the weekend flights have the capacity to fuel that growth – with good marketing.
Tiree was steadily strong, with +6.1% in November, +5.% in December and an overall year on year growth of +6.8%.
Like Campbeltown, Islay went from rowth in November at +9.4% to taking a hit of -12.4% in December, while washing its face at the year’s end, with +0.2%.
The full lists for the December and 2012 figures are below.
2012 Calendar year passenger totals
• BARRA 11,432 (+9%)
• BENBECULA 36,173 (-1.6%)
• CAMPBELTOWN 10,389 (+5.9%)
• DUNDEE 55,531 (-11.2%)
• INVERNESS 614,302 (+3.4%)
• ISLAY 27,253 (+0.2)
• KIRKWALL 160,527 (-0.1%)
• STORNOWAY 129,016 (-1.0%)
• SUMBURGH 199,583 (+13.2%)
• TIREE 9,583 (+6.8%)
• WICK JOHN O’GROATS 29,573 (+5.1%)
December passenger totals
• BARRA 608 (+10.9%)
• BENBECULA 2,672 (-4.6%)
• CAMPBELTOWN 560 (-17.5%)
• DUNDEE 2,042 (-52.8%)
• INVERNESS 42,251 (-4.3%)
• ISLAY 1,306 (-12.4%)
• KIRKWALL 11,552 (+11.8%)
• STORNOWAY 9,677 (-3.5%)
• SUMBURGH 18,887 (+41.3%)
• TIREE 615 (+5.9%)
• WICK JOHN O’GROATS 4,537 (91.1%)
