Efforts by Glasgow Airport to fill the gap left by the demise of two major airlines have paid off, with thousands of extra seats already secured for 2009, and more in the pipeline.

Earlier this year, Canadian carrier Zoom and holiday airline XL Airways both collapsed, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and many more forced to rethink holiday plans.

Glasgow Airport Managing Director Amanda McMillan said that despite the effects of the credit crunch, which has seen airlines around the world ground aircraft and reduce capacity, Glasgow Airport is close to filling the gap left by the demise of the two carriers, and is still actively seeking new business.

Both airlines had a major presence at Glasgow, with Zoom serving five destinations across Canada, and XL flying to more than a dozen sunspots throughout the Mediterranean, and Orlando, Florida. Between them, the two airlines carried almost 180,000 passengers a year.

Despite the loss of Zoom, Glasgow Airport has backfilled all of the capacity provided by Zoom, and will offer more seats to Canada in 2009 than in 2008, as Canadian Affair and flyglobespan both increase their programmes.

Canadian Affair alone will operate 11 flights a week to Toronto Pearson, and weekly flights to Calgary and Vancouver.

Meanwhile, efforts to secure extra capacity on routes previously served by XL are also paying dividends, with 88% of the seats now backfilled. Turkey specialist Scottravel is laying on extra flights to Dalaman, while Teleticket will provide extra capacity to Dalaman, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Paphos and Alicante.

Discussions are also underway with a number of airlines and holiday companies to provide additional flights to summer sunspots including Spain, Greece and Florida.

Amanda McMillan said: "The loss of Zoom and XL Airways, within weeks of each other, was a significant blow for Glasgow Airport, and came at a difficult time for the airline industry. The credit squeeze and falling demand has seen airlines around the world reduce capacity and ground aircraft in order to save money.

"Despite these challenges, we have worked hard to recover the capacity lost by the demise of Zoom and XL, with impressive results. The gap left by Zoom has now been completely filled, and we are well on our way to backfilling the gap in the market left by XL, with a number of existing carriers already confirming increased programmes in 2009, and discussions on further capacity increases continuing."

"Given the current economic climate, this is a real vote of confidence in Glasgow Airport from the airline industry, and a sign of our real commitment to gain new business for Glasgow. We have two choices in this global downturn. We can resign ourselves to the slowdown, or we can go out and seek new business opportunities, wherever they arise. We favour the latter approach."

Meanwhile, BAA Glasgow has welcomed plans by Glasgow Economic Forum, outlined in its new eight-point action plan, to devise new route development plans for air, sea and surface by December 2009, to be funded at a cost of £500,000 over five years.

Amanda McMillan said: "We welcome the support of the public sector in attracting new routes to Glasgow, and look forward to playing our part in these important discussions. Our own route development fund has been hugely successful in expanding choice for passengers and developing new business markets overseas. Working in partnership with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, Glasgow Economic Forum and others, we are confident that we can expand Glasgow's route network further."

BAA Scotland, which owns and operates Glasgow Airport, currently invests more than £20 million a year on route development.