Edinburgh Airport recorded its lowest number of passengers since 1995 in the last 12 months, and the outlook is bleak as the Covid-19 pandemic continues. The airport handled a little under 3.5m passengers in 2020 – a 76% reduction on the previous year which is estimated to cost the Scottish economy around £1bn and over 21,000 jobs during the same period. Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport said:
“Nobody should assume that when the pandemic subsides, life will go back to normal. At the airport, we will be starting from a low level of activity not recorded here since 1995 and the choice of airlines and destinations may be dramatically different to those we had worked hard to build before 2020 and on which many people depend for bringing visitors to Scotland and for holidays and business, including exports.
Independent research on the airport’s economic impact suggests the reduction in passenger numbers to a total of 3,478,501 resulted in a cost to the Scottish economy of £1bn and over 21,000 jobs.