Edinburgh Airport

"Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, shows Turnhouse as a "military and civil station".

Turnhouse Aerodrome was the northernmost British air defence base in World War I used by the Royal Flying Corps. The small base opened in 1916[4] and it was used to house the 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron from 1925, which consisted of DH 9As, Westland Wapitis, Hawker Harts, and Hawker Hind light bombers. All the aircraft used a grass airstrip.

In 1918 the Royal Air Force was formed and the airfield was named RAF Turnhouse and ownership was transferred to the Air Ministry.

When the Second World War broke out, RAF Fighter Command took control over the airfield and a runway of 3,900 ft (1,189 m) was paved to handle the Supermarine Spitfire. During the Battle of Britain, 3, 65, and 141 Squadrons were present at the airbase.

When the war ended the airfield remained under military control. It was officially opened for commercial traffic on 19 May 1947. The first commercial flight to use the airport was a British European Airways service from London (Northolt) to Shetland, with Edinburgh and Aberdeen being intermediate stopping points. The aircraft was an 18-seat Douglas C47.[5]

In 1952, the runway was extended to 6000 ft to handle the Vampire FB5s operated by the resident 603 Squadron, and an aircraft arresting barrier net was installed to protect traffic on the adjacent A9 road. The net remained in place until the early 1970s and was used to stop one of the Ferranti Flying Unit Buccaneers which had overrun the runway. A further use was in 1970 when a Meteor TT20, operated by the RN Fleet Requirement Unit, overran the runway and ended up in the net. In 1956, a new passenger terminal was built to provide an improved commercial service; five years later it was extended. After the disbandment of the 603 Squadron in March 1957, the Air Ministry transferred ownership to the Ministry of Aviation in 1960 to offer improved commercial service to the airport. Flying was temporarily diverted to East Fortune, which had its runway extended to accommodate the airliners of the period.

Aerial view of Edinburgh Airport (2017)

Departure gate area (2009)

Air Traffic Control tower (2010)

The British Airports Authority (BAA) took over ownership of the airport on 1 April 1971 at a time when the original terminal building was running at about eight times its design capacity. Immediate improvements to the terminal were cosmetic, such as extra seating and TV monitors for flight information, and it took two years for plans to be proposed for a completely new terminal and runway redesign. Public consultation on planning started in November 1971 and ended in February 1972. The initial stages of the redevelopment began in June 1973; they included a diversion of the River Almond. Work on the new terminal building, designed by Sir Robert Matthew, started in March 1975, and the building was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 27 May 1977,[6] opening to the public two days later.

Although the original main runway 13/31 (which is now 12/30) served the airport well, its alignment (NW-SE) had the disadvantage of suffering from severe crosswinds, and the other two minor runways were very short and could not be readily extended, so movements were transferred to a new runway (07/25, which has since become 06/24) in an addition completely outside the original airfield boundary. This runway, completed in 1977, is 2,556 m (8,386 ft) in length, and was able to take all modern airliners including Concorde. A new terminal was built alongside the runway to cater for the additional traffic. The old terminal and hangars were converted into a cargo centre.

International service from Edinburgh began in 1962 with direct service to Dublin, but for many years international flights were charter and private only. This started to change during the late 1970s, with direct services to continental Europe (Amsterdam, 1975). By the mid-1980s direct routes included Paris, Düsseldorf, Brussels, Frankfurt and Copenhagen, but direct transatlantic flights were not yet possible as Glasgow-Prestwick was the only "designated gateway" in Scotland under the US-UK Bermuda II Agreement.[7] By the time BAA had been privatised in 1987, Edinburgh Airport handled over 1.8 million passengers each year; compared to the 681,000 passengers handled in 1971 when BAA first took control of the airport.[8]

RAF Turnhouse was operational near the passenger terminal of the airport for all of the post-war period but was finally closed in 1997.[9]

Since the original terminal upgrade in 1977, there have been major reconstructions, including extensions of the two passenger terminal aprons and a major expansion of car parking facilities, including a multi-storey car park in 2004. In 2005, a new 57-metre-tall (187 ft) air traffic control tower was completed for £10m. An extension to the terminal called the South East Pier opened in September 2006. This extension initially added six gates on a new pier to the southeast of the original building. A further four gates were added to the South East Pier at the end of 2008.

On 19 October 2011, BAA Limited announced its intention to sell the airport, following a decision by the UK's Competition Commission requiring BAA to sell either Glasgow Airport or Edinburgh Airport.[10] BAA announced on 23 April 2012 that it had sold Edinburgh Airport to Global Infrastructure Partners for a price of £807.2 million, equivalent to £1014 million in 2021.[11]

In 2013, a further extension to the passenger terminal was announced, taking the terminal building up to the Edinburgh Airport tram stop. The Edinburgh Trams opening in May 2014 created the first rail connection to Edinburgh Airport. Whilst the number of passengers has increased, the number of flights decreased in 2014 due to planes operating at a higher capacity.[12] Passenger traffic at Edinburgh Airport reached a record level in 2015 with over 11.1 million passengers[13] and over 109,000 aircraft movements.[2] The terminal building is currently being expanded with an investment of £40m. A new £25m expansion project involving the construction of a new 6,000 m² building, housing a security hall and retail areas, is also currently underway at the airport. On 23 February 2016, Ryanair announced a growth of 20% in passenger numbers, bringing the airline's annual passenger capacity at Edinburgh Airport to 2.5 million. This was coupled with the news of six new services to Ryanair's winter schedule from Edinburgh and more services on its popular European destinations. In February 2016, consultancy firm Biggar Economics announced that Edinburgh Airport contributes almost £1 billion annually to the Scottish economy.[14] As part of the expansion works, Runway 12/30 was officially withdrawn from use on 29 March 2018.

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and cargo flights to and from Edinburgh:[15]

The changes shown in the table are from an exceptionally low base, due to COVID.

Busiest international routes from EDI (2022)

Rank	Destination	Passengers	Change 2021 to 2022
1	Dublin	572,050	263%
2	Amsterdam	471,698	259%
3	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	307,322	398%
4	Tenerife-South	285,021	314%
5	Alicante	210,523	382%
6	Frankfurt	192,170	359%
7	Palma de Mallorca	190,095	392%
8	Copenhagen	180,360	504%
9	Barcelona	179,948	397%
10	Málaga	170,871	421%
Source: CAA Statistics[42]

Several operators provide bus services from the airport:

• Lothian Buses provides public transportation to the airport and Edinburgh.[43]
• McGill's Scotland East provides public transportation to the airport and West Lothian with one service.[44]
• Stagecoach East Scotland provides public transportation to the airport and Fife with one service.[45]
• Xplore Dundee provides public transport to the airport from Dundee.[46]
• Citylink provides public transportation to the airport from Glasgow and Stirling.[47]

The airport lies on the A8 road, and can be reached by the M8 motorway and the M9 motorway. The airport can also be reached from the M90 motorway via the Queensferry Crossing.

The airport has no dedicated railway station. However, it is served by the nearby Edinburgh Gateway station, which serves as an interchange with Edinburgh Trams services to the airport.[48] The tram line also connects the airport to the nearby Edinburgh Park railway station.[49]

A more expensive Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project to provide a direct heavy rail link was cancelled in 2007 due to increasing costs.[50]

The airport is served by Edinburgh Trams, a light rail link.

The line from the airport travels eastwards through the western suburbs and the city centre of Edinburgh before heading north onto Leith eventually terminating at Newhaven.