UK WEATHER PROBLEMS CAUSE RECOVERY TO FALTER SLIGHTLY - Airport Press Release

Appalling weather conditions at UK airports during the lead up to Christmas resulted in the number of passengers using Isle of Man Airport in December to be slightly down compared with December 2008. 58,341 passengers passed through the Airport, just 348 or 0.6% less than the previous December. This meant that 2009 finished with a year end total of more than 721,000 passengers, down 5.45% on 2008.

The annual decline of less than 5.5% for the Isle of Man is significantly better than many UK airports during a period of unprecedented economic downturn which hit the aviation industry hard throughout 2009. Indeed, in recent months, monthly IOM Airport traffic has been running some 2% ahead of predictions and every indication was that December would show a slight increase over the previous year. However, some passengers were forced to cancel their travel plans due to the poor weather, and this resulted in a slight falter in the expected recovery.

Ann Reynolds, Airport Director, whilst disappointed that December did not show positive growth, remains pleased with the overall progress that the Airport is making towards securing growth for 2010. ‘Many of our UK destination airports suffered badly from snow and ice at a critical time for the travelling public - shortly before Christmas,’ she said. ‘As a result, several flights were cancelled and a number of passengers had to re-think their travel arrangements. Fortunately, the Isle of Man Airport remained fully operational throughout the period and as soon as the UK airports opened, flights were able to resume. However, the disruption ultimately proved to have some effect upon our monthly passenger outturn.’

As Manchester and Gatwick Airports both suffered particularly badly with inclement weather, it was these routes that saw the major decreases, with combined passengers more than 3,500 lower than December 2008. The North West routes as a whole were down by 5.3%, but, due to the increase in the London City traffic – by almost 4,500 passengers – the London market as a whole increased by 1,500 passengers, or 9.2%. The route to Dublin also performed well, with Aer Arann carrying over 6% more passengers and, although passengers to Birmingham were slightly down, Flybe carried over 23% more than last December. Manx2 saw increases on their Blackpool, Belfast City, East Midlands and Newcastle routes, the latter route generating the highest number of passengers to the North East destination for 21 months. Charter traffic was also more buoyant, with over 50% more passengers, chiefly due to the Regency pre-Christmas shopping flight to Bruges, a charter operation so successful that additional flights are planned for 2010.

During 2009, despite many major routes experiencing significant declines, six Isle of Man routes saw increases throughout the difficult year: Blackpool, East Midlands, Geneva, Gloucester, Newquay and London City. Looking ahead to 2010, current forecasts are for traffic to recover to about 2008 levels. ‘All the indications are that this winter will continue to be challenging period for the Airport and our airlines, despite a slow recovery,’ added Ann. ‘But I remain confident that the coming year will gather momentum with regular monthly increases experienced by the early summer.’

David Anderson, Minister for Transport, emphasised the resilience of the Isle of Man route network throughout 2009. ‘We started 2009 with a network of 20 scheduled service routes and we are starting 2010 still with 20 routes,’ he said. ‘Given the challenges of the last year, this is no mean feat. It remains our focus to continue to work with our airline operators to provide the best choice of destinations possible for our residents and the easiest means of access to the Island for visitors and clearly this has been achieved during 2009. I am extremely grateful to our airline partners for remaining so supportive to the Isle of Man during this tough year.’

Please click on the documents below to access Monthly Summary for December 2009 and Annual Traffic Summary for 2009.

Downloadable Documents