Interesting couple of articles have appeared in the Scottish Herald the last couple of days.

35 more airline collapses predicted for 2008 forecasts another 35 airlines to go bust during this winter, but this time it is the Director General of the European Regional Airlines industry body saying it.

Scotland’s airports report 6.6% fall in passengers refers to Scottish airports. The article goes into more detail about statistics for each airport, but numbers of passengers seem to falling at all - Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. 6.6% is a big drop for one year. The industry however remains optimistic in the face of decline:

"However, we remain confident the market will recover and that demand will return. In the meantime, we are continuing to promote Scotland as a destination and working with airline partners to support their marketing efforts."

And in today's (Sat 11th Oct) Financial Times: BAA passenger traffic falls as airlines collapse:

The number of passengers travelling through BAA's seven UK airports fell sharply last month reflecting the impact of weakening economic growth as well as the collapse of two airlines.

Overall passenger traffic declined by five per cent year-on-year in September, a rapid deterioration compared with the fall of 1.4 per cent in the first nine months.

Traffic volumes have been falling for six months in succession and have fallen in seven of nine months this year, as demand for air travel has slowed under pressure from weaker consumer confidence and higher fares caused by rising fuel costs. The downturn accelerated last month.

... None of the BAA airports escaped the downturn with traffic at Heathrow declining by 3.6 per cent year-on-year and Stansted passenger volumes falling by 4.7 per cent.

Makes you wonder if the UK govt announcement to go ahead with the Stansted expansion was deliberately done before the bad news about air traffic numbers came out.

Despite this negative headline, Cash crisis hits Aberdeen Airport for fifth month in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, the article is never the less upbeat about Aberdeen airport prospects for future growth.