Passenger numbers rise at City of Derry

The City of Derry Airport has reported that the number of commercial passengers increased by almost 5,000 passengers or 3% over the past year.

According to annual passenger statistics a total of 199,684 commercial passengers travelled to and from the airport during 2002, an increase of 4,904 than the previous year.

Among the routes to record a healthy increase in commercial passengers during the year was the Ryanair London Stansted route (135,440 passengers, an increase of 3% on 2001), the British Airways Manchester route (18,306 passengers, an increase of 2% on 2001) and the British Airways franchise Loganair Dublin route (24,244 passengers, an increase of over 5,000 passengers or 30%).

Private/business travellers using the facilities at the airport recorded a slight decrease of 1%. A total of 4,706 private and business passengers used the airport in 2002 compared with 4,783 in 2001.

The Airport Manager Seamus Devine said it was a "busy year" for staff at the City of Derry Airport and that he anticipated 2003 to be a bumper year for the airport having secured three new operators to two new holiday destinations in Lanzarote and Portugal, which are due to depart from the airport this summer.

He said: “This has been a tremendous year for the airport and we are expecting this summer to be particularly busy as hundreds of families from all over the North West region depart from the City of Derry Airport for their summer holidays.

"We are also delighted with the number of pilgrimage flights being chartered out of the City of Derry Airport this year. So far local parishes have booked 15 pilgrimages to destinations such as Medjugorie and Lourdes. We are delighted with this business.”

The chairman of the Airport Committee, Councillor Gerard Diver said the figures highlighted the importance of the City of Derry Airport as a tourism and business asset for the North West region.

(GMcG)