THE number of passengers travelling through Scottish airports has continued to rise. International visitors at Edinburgh Airport increased by 14.1 per cent during its busiest ever September, according to the latest figures, while Glasgow also had a record month.

Last month, just under 1.3 million passengers used Edinburgh – up 8.4 per cent on the same month in 2016. Airport chiefs said it was the sixth successive month in which more than one million passengers have passed through the airport.

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said: “The fact that international passengers are driving continued growth is an indication of the global appeal that Edinburgh and Scotland has. People want to say they’ve been here and experienced our culture, our history and all the other fantastic things we have to offer. Our domestic numbers also remain strong, which highlights the healthy passenger mix that we have at Edinburgh Airport.

“We’re constantly looking to add more options for passengers, such as the new Washington DC route from next summer, and we’re investing in improved facilities for passengers so we can accommodate increasing demand.”

More than 972,900 passengers travelled through Glasgow, a 4.1 per cent increase on last year. EU scheduled services increased by 15 per cent on the same period in 2016 following strong demand on a number of routes including Milan, Brussels, Valencia and Lisbon.

Long-haul routes were up 10 per cent and international traffic grew by 10.2 per cent with transatlantic routes to New York, Toronto and Vancouver reporting strong demand.

Glasgow’s managing director, Amanda McMillan, said: “Our strong performance throughout the year continued with our best-ever passenger numbers in September despite the wider industry facing a number of challenges.

“We remain on course to record our most successful year ever and this can be attributed to our continued focus on not only attracting new services, such as Frankfurt, but by also working closely with our current airline partners to enhance existing routes.

“Looking ahead, we are now gearing up for the October Week, which is traditionally our busiest period of the year as tens of thousands of passengers jet off on sun and city breaks.”

At Aberdeen Airport, passenger numbers increased year on year for the fifth consecutive month. It dealt with 284,899 passengers during September with an overall passenger increase of 3.9 per cent.

The growth represented a 7.2 per cent increase in domestic fixed-wing traffic and a 3.3 per cent increase in international fixed-wing traffic.

Managing director Carol Benzie said: “In September we saw the return of the SPE Offshore Europe conference which strengthened numbers through our terminal.

“This, along with the continued strong performances of our domestic and international leisure routes, is reflected by the encouraging increase in fixed-wing passenger numbers.”