Bournemouth Airport expecting one million passengers in 2024

An airport has said it expects to handle more than one million passengers in 2024.

Bournemouth Airport in Dorset said it was investing more than £5m in new facilities, equipment and staff to cater for the expected growth.

It will be the highest figures reached since 2008.

Ryanair based a second aircraft at the site in 2023 and TUI also plans to add a second plane in 2024, with an extra 60,000 seats available.

Work is expected to take place during the quieter winter months.

It will include an upgraded security search area with new scanning equipment to relax the restriction on liquids and the need to take electronics out of bags.

A new airport information desk will be built, along with improved baggage screening and an extra baggage retrieval area in the arrivals terminal.

More Border Force desks will also be placed in arrivals and the airport will build an improved queuing system for passengers.

The addition of the second Ryanair plane in the summer increased the number of flights by 30%, the airport said.

The carrier also confirmed that, from 1 April, it would begin twice-weekly flights to the beach destination of Agadir in Morocco, bringing its total number of destinations from the airport to 19.

Commercial passenger flights from the airport at Hurn all-but ended when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, with Ryanair resuming flights in December of that year.

Steve Gill, managing director of Bournemouth Airport, said: "Before the pandemic we saw 800,000 passengers.

"Having exceeded that this year, we are confident of seeing more than one million in 2024."

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