Airline route cut-backs have been particularly hard-hitting during the summer months - leading to a 7.7 drop in passengers in August, latest figures show.
And hardest hit of all was the Gatwick service which saw passengers numbers fall by 5,600 following the withdrawal of Flybe and easyJet’s cuts in frequency during the peak season.
There were no Saturday flights at all from mid July to early September.
And it will be the same situation next year with easyJet’s new summer timetable, published last week, showing no Gatwick flights from July 11 until September 5.
The latest monthly air traffic summary, for August, states: ‘The route cutbacks from April have been particularly hard-hitting during the peak summer months.’
In total 67,105 passengers passed through Ronaldsway in August, 5,613 fewer than in the same month the previous year, resulting in a 7.72 per cent reduction in traffic.
Very high load factors on the Manx routes - all over 62 per cent - showed this reduction was the result of big shortfall in seat capacity.
The London market was hardest hit by this shortfall, with the withdrawal of the Flybe routes to Gatwick and Luton, and saw a decline of more than 5,200 passengers, over 22 per cent down.
Gatwick route fell by 5,600 passengers with easyJet cutting frequency during the peak season and achieving a 95 per cent load factor on the route.
But BA CityFlyer’s London City service had 6,630 passengers, an increase of over 46 per cent and again achieving an 81 per cent load factor on the route.
Traffic to the North West fell by just under 200 passengers, or 0.6 per cent. Manchester was up 16.7 per cent but Liverpool fell by 11.5 per cent as capacity was reduced.