George Nugent Travels

Aberdeen Airport continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, and the end of 2023 marks another significant point in that journey.

Owned by AGS Airports, Aberdeen is home to a number of domestic and European routes, as well as a single route to Dalaman, Turkiye.

Below is a comparison of passenger numbers on each route between 2022 and 2023, as well as any need to know information for a specific route.

Want to see a specific geographical region, use the table below;

• Domestic
• European
• Turkiye

Domestic Breakdown

In 2022 Aberdeen was home to 18 domestic routes across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

In 2023 this was reduced to 17 domestic routes after Loganair removed their route to Exeter.

Destination	2022 Passengers	2023 Passengers	Change
Belfast City	21,902	20,350	-1,552
Birmingham	50,098	53,421	+3,323
Bristol	16,050	16,231	+181
Exeter	5,116	0	-5,116
Humberside	11,175	10,737	-438
Kirkwall	41,444	43,290	+1,846
London City	4,441	1,072	-3,369
London Gatwick	162,333	194,917	+32,584
London Heathrow	411,683	506,327	+94,644
London Luton	67,572	77,380	+9,808
Manchester	72,848	71,549	-1,299
Newcastle	7,348	14,397	+7,049
Newquay	23,565	9,951	-13,614
Norwich	28,598	32,898	+4,300
Southampton	3,129	6,115	+2,986
Sumburgh	91,096	100,792	+9,696
Teesside	18,336	14,293	-4,043
Wick	7,140	10,685	+3,545
TOTALS	1,043,874	1,184,405	+140,531

Domestic traffic from Aberdeen continues to be the largest passenger source for the airport.

In 2023 the airport recorded 1,184,405 domestic passengers, this is still 261,772 behind 2019 levels, meaning at current growth rates it will take until the end of 2025 to fully recover this market.

European Breakdown

In 2022 Aberdeen was home to 19 domestic routes across Europe, this remained the same in 2023, however, changes may have occurred with airline operating on each route.

Country	Destination	2022 Passengers	2023 Passengers	Change
Bulgaria	Burgas	4,294	3,498	-796
Denmark	Copenhagen	1,423	8,000	+6,577
Denmark	Esbjerg	11,536	11,776	+240
Greece	Corfu	8,416	8,264	-152
Greece	Rhodes	6,307	6,893	+586
Ireland	Dublin	27,012	62,254	+35,242
Latvia	Riga	8,178	7,660	-518
Netherlands	Amsterdam	212,731	264,961	+52,230
Norway	Bergen	38,120	41,539	+3,419
Norway	Oslo	3,591	12,078	+8,487
Norway	Stavanger	62,664	72,593	+9,929
Poland	Gdansk	30,658	49,287	+18,629
Portugal	Faro	19,852	21,817	+1,965
Spain	Alicane	31,848	29,816	-2,032
Spain	Malaga	20,545	21,406	+861
Spain	Palma	26,617	27,746	+1,129
Spain	Reus	8,488	8,926	+438
Spain	Tenerife	27,613	29,193	+1,580
Switzerland	Geneva	3,169	4,144	+975
TOTALS		553,062	691,851	+138,789

In 2023 the airport recorded 691,851 international passengers, which is above 2019 levels for scheduled European services, which was 655,575

Turkiye

In both 2022 and 2023 there was a route between Aberdeen and Dalaman, operated by Sunwing on behalf of TUI.

Destination	2022 Passengers	2023 Passengers	Change
Dalaman	17,679	17,916	+237

Some Things To Note

• Significant disruption to schedules was recorded on August 29th and 30th due to a NATS ATC collapse in the UK, impacting flights to and from Aberdeen
• A number of diversions to Glasgow and Edinburgh take place during the winter due to high winds and fog at Aberdeen.
• Total passengers numbers will be higher than outlined in this post as we have removed flights to Oil Rigs in the North Sea.

Route Changes for 2024

Starting with cuts from Aberdeen, these have either already happened, or will be taking place from the start of the summer schedule in March.

• British Airways flights to London City have been removed
• Loganair flights to Oslo have been removed
• Loganair have reduced flights to Manchester

In more positive news, the following changes will add additional capacity on certain routes to Aberdeen.

• WIZZ Air are increasing Gdansk to 4x week from June
• Ryanair are increasing Alicante to 3x week from March