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Traffic through Scotland's airports flew upward as fans flocked to sporting events in the last 12 months, airport operator BAA has revealed.

Edinburgh was packed out just before the Scotland-Ireland rugby international, while Glasgow sent legions of fans to the Rangers and Celtic European football matches.

Last month alone, the two airports jointly handled 1.6 million passengers and international trips inward and outbound grew by 16 per cent.

Although Glasgow has classically processed more passengers than its southern competitor, Edinburgh became the busiest airport last month and appears to be close to overtaking Glasgow in terms of through flow.

Five years ago, Glasgow served almost 900,000 more passengers than Edinburgh, but that gap has now narrowed to just 200,000.

But the growth in Edinburgh's popularity in the winter months has yet to be borne out in the summer, when Glasgow typically sends vast numbers of tourists outward to Spain and the United States.

Over the past year, Edinburgh traffic has grown at 2%, far faster than Glasgow's 0.5% growth, a trend many have linked to the opening of new routes from Edinburgh to Madrid, Prague and Zurich.

© Adfero Ltd