Number of passenger are down and flights have been cut, but the CAA yesterday discovered a silver lining amid the dark clouds hanging over the airline industry - punctuality has improved at nearly all of Britain's airports.
Airline insiders said that the economic downturn had relieved pressure on the overstretched airport and air traffic infrastructure and fewer flights were being delayed as a result.
It is also believed that fewer bags are being lost because the system is less strained.
The CAA's most recent figures show that in January 85.1 per cent of flights to Edinburgh, for example, were early or within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time, compared with 72 per cent in the same month last year. In this period, the number of flights at Edinburgh fell by 9.2 per cent and passenger numbers were down by 5.8 per cent.