Birmingham airport passenger numbers drop

Birmingham airport has seen its passenger numbers fall by 7.7% compared to last year, blaming the omnipresent economic downturn as the reason for the drop.

The recurring story of the recession making life hard for the aviation industry has proved to be the case once again although the airport said that it was "performing better than the majority of other UK airports".

The airport processed 563,105 scheduled passengers and 111,196 charter passengers in March.

Chief executive officer Paul Kehoe reflected saying: "always said that this year will be a testing one".

He added: "In recent weeks we have been able to celebrate a number of positive announcements.

"(These include) the granting of planning permission for a runway extension by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Emirates' decision to increase capacity to Dubai, and the launch of Monarch's Larnaca and BMI Regional's Aberdeen services."