Bristol Airport has reported record passenger numbers for July, with more than 650,000 people passing through the terminal.
The 5.1% year-on-year increase took the monthly total beyond the previous July high recorded in 2008 – before the recession began to bite.
Airport aviation director Shaun Browne said: “High passenger volumes have been driven by the strong performance of easyJet services and the popularity of the holidays offered by tour operators Tui and Thomas Cook.
“But it is not all one way traffic – figures for the first quarter show that around one in five passengers using Bristol Airport is an inbound visitor from overseas. Demand from business and leisure travellers also remained strong during the Olympics.”
This increase followed a 6.9% year-on-year increase in passengers in June, meaning a total of over 1.2m people used the airport over the two-month period.
The rise in passengers was achieved with fewer flights as the total number of aircraft movements fell by 7.4%, thanks to airlines operating fuller, larger aircraft.
