The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Covid sees airport rack up £2.8m loss
Dundee Airport lost £2.8 million in a year as passenger numbers plummeted during the pandemic.
The city airport served just 4,751 passengers in the year to March 31 2021 as Covid-19 reduced demand for travel.
This compares to more than 21,000 passengers in 2019-20.
Newly filed accounts for Dundee Airport Ltd showed revenue fell to £1.4m in the financial year compared to £5.2m in 2020.
The operating loss was £2.8m compared to a £779,000 surplus in 2020.
Dundee Airport is one of 11 airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL), wholly owned by Scottish ministers and subsidised by the Scottish Government.
HIAL managing director Inglis Lyon said: “The reduction in passenger numbers was keenly felt across all HIAL airports including Dundee and, of course, aviation as a sector.
“Airline schedules were vastly reduced in 2020-21 due to the pandemic with the corresponding impacts on airports and associated services.
“With that as a backdrop, throughout the year, we supported our existing airlines to help prepare them to return to our airports once restrictions were eased and the demand for more frequent services from the travelling public increased.
“We will continue to work with the Scottish Government, partner agencies and our airline partners to retain key routes and to bring in new services where we can.”
Last month, the UK Government announced funding of £2.5m to ensure flights to London City airport remain in operation until at least 2023.
The route will continue to be run by Loganair, which has operated the flights since 2014. There are also flights to Belfast from Dundee.
During the 2020-21 financial year, HIAL received a public subsidy of £56.8m. This was made up of revenue funding of £36.6m and capital funding of £20.2m.
Passenger numbers across its 11 airports fell from 1.7 million in 2019-20 to 393,000 in 2020-21.
HIAL’S accounts show a loss of £2.6m for the financial year.
Mr Lyon said: “Over the last year, the Covid mitigation measures introduced across our airports and office buildings took priority.
“Nonetheless, we continued to invest in the infrastructure across the company, delivering £23.8m in capital projects.”