All direct flights to Aberdeen from the UK & Ireland

James Says

After surviving many years as a satellite for London and other European hubs such as Paris and Amsterdam, Aberdeen is now the fastest-growing of BAA's Scottish airports.

The network of domestic flights from Aberdeen has previously been focused around the Scottish Highlands and Islands, together with a few business cities, with very few other no-frills players having shown much interest beyond Flybe's expanding network of dometic flights and easyJet's well established links with London.

On the international front, Aberdeen has always had a limited range of leisure flights as well as flights to Paris and Amsterdam and the oil industry specific flights to Groningen and a number of Norwegian destinations.

No-frills airline Ryanair previously claimed it would like to operate many more routes from Aberdeen, but that the charging structure applied by BAA prevented them from doing so, and ultimately, the airline's flights to Dublin were withdrawn.

The chances are that Aberdeen will prove to be perfectly capable of significantly expanding its international flight route network without needing to offer any special favours to Ryanair, although allowing the cheeky Irish carrier to set up a base here would certainly spice things up a little in what is otherwise a relatively conservative market place.