article: Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) runs sites in the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland, Argyll and Dundee Airport. Inverness was the company's busiest site with 657,661 passengers - 6% more than the previous year. Sumburgh had an 8% increase in passenger numbers and Barra 14%. However, Dundee's passenger numbers were down 17%. Barra's runway is a strip of beach, which Hial said added to the appeal for tourists visiting the island. Hial said because it was a publicly-funded company, it had historically operated at a commercial loss in order to sustain its lifeline services. In 2014-15, the group recorded an operating loss of £442,000 compared to £3.8m on the previous year. It said the improved performance was due to Scottish government subsidies returning to normal levels of £20.1m in 2014-15 from £14.9m in 2013-14.
summary: The operator of Scotland's 11 regional airports handled more than 1.4 million passengers in the 12 months to March 2015, according to its annual report.