Edinburgh airport enjoyed an increase of 4.8 per cent in the number of passengers in August.

The statistics from airport operator BAA revealed that it was the fifth monthly rise that Edinburgh witnessed. Airport's annual total number of passengers stood over 9 million.

Heathrow airport handled 6.4 million passengers last month, showing an increase of 0.3 per cent. August was the busiest month ever for Heathrow.

On the other hand Glasgow suffered a drop of 13.4 per cent in traffic, the sharpest decline among airports in Britain, while Aberdeen airport, which handled about 270,000 passengers in August reported a decline of9.8 per cent.

A spokesman for BAA said, "Quite simply, fewer people are taking holidays and weekend breaks, or flying on business, as a result of the recession."

The spokesman for BAA further opposed UK government's planned increase in Air Passenger Duty, saying it would hinder industry's recovery. The tax will be increase from £10 to £11 for flights within Europe, while taxes for longer routes will be increased from £40 to £45-55.

In August traffic was down by 3.1 per cent as compared with 2.4 per cent decline in the previous month.

BAA warned that the rest of the year would remain challenging for the industry.

(Via TopNews United Kingdom. Contributed by Sunil Kumar)