More than ninety thousand passengers passed through in seven days.

Calder Airport handled 92,400 passengers during the autumn half-term week, the busiest seven days in its history and around twelve per cent more than the same week last year. The previous record, set during the summer holidays in August, was beaten by more than three thousand passengers, according to figures released by the airport on Tuesday.

The busiest single day was the Saturday at the start of the holiday, when just over 15,800 people passed through the terminal on 118 departing and arriving flights. The first departure that morning left at ten past six, and the security hall was operating at full capacity from four o’clock.

Where people went

Sunshine routes accounted for the largest share of traffic, with flights to southern island resorts and coastal cities in the warmer south more than ninety per cent full across the week. But the airport said it had also seen strong demand for city breaks, with several routes to northern capitals and a new twice-weekly service to a lakeside city in the mountains selling out in advance.

Domestic routes also performed well. Flights to the island airports in the north of the country were busier than usual, which the airport attributed partly to families visiting relatives during the holiday and partly to disruption on the rail network, where engineering works closed the main line south for four days of the week.

“We planned for a big week, and it was bigger than we planned for. The fact that it went as smoothly as it did is down to the people who work here, many of whom were in at three in the morning,” said Lorraine Abiodun-Shaw, the airport’s chief operating officer.

Ms Abiodun-Shaw said 94 per cent of passengers had passed through security in under fifteen minutes, helped by two new scanners installed in the summer which allow liquids and laptops to stay in bags. On the busiest morning, the average wait rose to around twenty-two minutes.

Not quite plain sailing

The week was not without its problems. On the Wednesday, a fault with the baggage system caused delays of up to ninety minutes for several evening departures, and about 300 bags had to be sent on to passengers on later flights. A shortage of seats in the departure lounge was a recurring complaint on social media, and the airport’s short-stay car park was full by mid-morning on four of the seven days.

Passengers arriving late in the evening also reported long waits for taxis, and the last bus into the city centre left before several delayed flights had landed. Councillors in Calder have repeatedly called for later public transport services to the airport, and on Tuesday the airport said it was in talks with the bus operator about extending the timetable during school holidays.

Nell Barraclough, who flew back from the south with her husband and three children late on the Sunday, said the outward journey had been “easy” but the return “a bit of a scramble”. “We landed at half eleven and there were about eighty people in the taxi queue,” she said. “In the end we rang my brother.”

Growth and its limits

The record week caps a strong year for the airport, which expects to handle around 3.4 million passengers in total – close to the level it last reached before passenger numbers fell sharply earlier in the decade. Three new routes have been announced for next summer, and one of the airlines based at Calder will add a fourth aircraft to its fleet in the spring.

The growth has reopened debate about the airport’s future. Its owners have published plans to extend the terminal and add four new aircraft stands, which they say are needed to cope with demand. Residents’ groups in the villages under the flight path, along with environmental campaigners, have objected, arguing that the region should be reducing flights rather than adding them. A public consultation on the plans closes at the end of the month.

For now, the airport is preparing for its next peak. Bookings for the Christmas and new-year period are already ahead of last year, and officials say they expect the half-term record to be challenged again before February.