More than two million passengers passed throuhg Cardiff Airport last year, new figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have revealled. However, the figures were not quite as good for air freight, which dropped by 14% in 2006.
Statistics from the CAA show a passenger increase of 245,000 to 2,024,428 in 2006. The 14% rise put the airport joint 10th in the list of the fastest growing UK airports when including smaller hubs such as Southend Airport. However, looking only at larger airports (with passengers of more than 1 million a year), Cardiff's passenger growth put it third in the list, just 1% behind the two highest climbers.
Jon Horne, managing director at Cardiff Airport, said: 'Last week we announced an 18% increase in passenger numbers in January and February compared with 2006, and now we have figures for the whole of last year, confirming that we are one of the fastest-growing major regional airporta in the UK.'
However, freight figures at the airport did not fares as well, dropping by 14% during the year. A 336% increase in freight carried on passenger aircraft was more than offset by a 20% fall in freight carried by cargo aircraft.
