Newcastle Airport is celebrating its busiest summer holiday period ever, welcoming 1.3 million passengers and launching flights to four new destinations.
More than 4,200 flights departed the multi-award winning Airport over the Scottish and English summer school holidays, with passenger numbers rising by 5% compared to the same period last year.
The record-breaking summer was driven by a surge in international passengers and followed significant investment from airlines, with new routes to Copenhagen, Berlin, Guernsey and Agadir alongside additional capacity to existing destinations.
Sun-soaked favourites Ibiza, Barcelona, Antalya and Dalaman topped the list of the most popular destinations.
Many passengers also travelled further afield through hubs across the world, including Dubai, London Heathrow, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin and Frankfurt, which provide seamless ‘one-stop’ connectivity to popular destinations such as New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and Mauritius.
Throughout the summer, passengers enjoyed a seamless travel experience, with 99% passing through security in under 10 minutes and more than 32,000 passengers with reduced mobility supported throughout their journeys.
Nick Jones, Chief Executive at Newcastle Airport, said: “We are proud to have recorded our busiest summer ever at Newcastle Airport, welcoming 1.3 million passengers, partnering with new airlines and launching exciting new destinations.
“This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams who have gone above and beyond to deliver a world-class experience for our passengers during our busiest period.
“As we head into the final months of the year, we are excited to build on this momentum and further investment from our airline partners will deliver more new routes and provide even more choice for our passengers.”
This winter, Ryanair will base a third aircraft at the Airport and will operate new services to Brussels, Budapest, Gdansk, Malta and Wroclaw, as well as extra flights to Alicante, Dublin and Krakow.
Jet2.com, which celebrated 20 years of flying from the Airport in September, will add new flights to Budapest and Marrakesh in October, followed by Gdansk in November and Chambery in December.
TUI will also expand its network with direct flights to Sofia from December – perfect for passengers eager to experience Bulgaria’s popular ski resorts including Bankso, Pamporovo and Borovets.