2012 Isle of Man TT air passenger numbers top 41,000
The number of air passengers passing through the Isle of Man’s Ronaldsway Airport during the 2012 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy topped 41,000, it has been confirmed.
Figures for between May 27 and June 10 showed there were more than 41,100 passengers using the airport, a 4% increase on the number seen during the 2011 TT.
The figure has only been bettered once – during the Centenary TT celebration in 2007 when the airport dealt with about 2,200 more passengers.
Airport bosses said during the TT last year the airport was used by 39,899 passengers.
Overall there were about 3,000 fewer seats available during the two weeks, as there was no Southampton service, fewer flights to and from Luton and the new British Airways service to London City only started with one flight a day on May 28.
However, there were several large aircraft charter flights during the period bringing visitors to the Island for the TT as well as taking residents on “TT getaway” holidays.
Airport Director Ann Reynolds said:
“The airlines worked very hard in managing passenger demand with aircraft size, and whereas Flybe used their large Embraer 195 aircraft on several key services throughout the period, other operators increased the number of rotations. easyJet put on additional Liverpool service on the Thursday/Friday/Saturday and Sunday and in addition, Manx2.com offered additional seats when the racing got delayed at the end so that some visitors could stay longer.”
“In fact, flights were also very busy on the Monday after the racing with departing visitors however those passenger figures are not included for the period.”
“Whilst weather did prevent some of the smaller private aircraft traffic making it to the Island, the actual number of aircraft movements was down nearly 14% (approximately 270 movements less than in 2011), reflecting that the average size of aircraft using Ronaldsway is getting bigger and continuing the annual trend of decreasing in number.”
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