There has been a fair smattering of good news on the Scottish business and economic front in the past week.

Given the tough backdrop, such cheer is particularly welcome.

Figures for the first quarter from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, published on Wednesday, provide plenty of reasons to be upbeat.

The Civil Aviation Authority observed that Edinburgh Airport had one of the highest passenger growth numbers in the UK in the opening three months of this year. The figures show 3,362,906 passengers travelled through this airport in the first quarter, up 7% on the same period of last year.

As I noted in my column in The Herald on Friday: “This strength is in line with the confidence expressed by Gordon Dewar - who is due to step down as chief executive of Edinburgh Airport later this year - in an exclusive interview with The Herald in March.

“Mr Dewar revealed his expectation at that stage that passenger numbers this year would be “well ahead” of the record 16.98 million figure for 2025 and flagged a host of new route opportunities.”

The Civil Aviation Authority figures also show that the number of passengers travelling through Scottish airports in the first three months of this year, at 5,795,334, broke previous records for travel between January and March.

Glasgow Airport’s passenger numbers in the first quarter of 2026 were, at 1,606,914, up by 4% on the same period of last year.

And passenger numbers at Inverness Airport in the first quarter of this year were, at 152,870, up by 7% on the opening three months of........

© Herald Scotland