Edinburgh Airport

Edinburgh Airport
Port-adhair Dhùn Èideann
IATA: EDI – ICAO: EGPH
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Global Infrastructure Partners
Operator Edinburgh Airport Ltd.
Serves Edinburgh, Lothian, Fife, the Scottish Borders and Central Scotland
Location Ingliston
Elevation AMSL 136 ft / 41 m
Coordinates 55°57′00″N 003°22′21″W / 55.95000°N 3.37250°W / 55.95000; -3.37250Coordinates: 55°57′00″N 003°22′21″W / 55.95000°N 3.37250°W / 55.95000; -3.37250
Website edinburghairport.com
Map
EGPH

Location in Edinburgh

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 2,556 8,386 Asphalt
12/30 1,797 5,896 Asphalt
Statistics (2015 - provisional)
Passengers 11,113,599
Passenger change 14–15 Increase9.4%
Aircraft movements (2014) 109,545
Movements change 13–14 Decrease2.0%
Sources: UK AIP at NATS[1]
Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[2]

Edinburgh Airport (Scottish Gaelic: Port-adhair Dhùn Èideann) (IATA: EDI, ICAO: EGPH) is an airport located at Ingliston in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2015, handling just over 11.1 million passengers in that year, an increase of 9.4% on 2014. It was also the sixth busiest airport in the UK by total passengers as of 2015.[3] It is located 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi)[1] west of the city centre and is situated just off the M8 motorway. It is owned and operated by Global Infrastructure Partners, which also owns and operates Gatwick Airport and London City Airport.[4] The airport features two runways and one passenger terminal, and employs about 2,500 people.

Major airlines using Edinburgh Airport as a base include Flybe, EasyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, Loganair and Thomson Airways. Other airlines with a high presence at Edinburgh Airport include but aren't limited to British Airways, KLM, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Lufthansa.

History

Early years

Turnhouse Aerodrome was the most northerly British air defence base in World War I used by the Royal Flying Corps. The small base opened in 1915 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 air strip.

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

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, Nos No.3 Squadron RAF3, 65, and 141 Squadrons were present at the airbase.

Post World War II

When the war ended the airfield still remained under military control, but by the late 1940s the first commercial services were launched. In 1947, British European Airways started a service between Edinburgh and London using Vickers Vikings followed by the Viscount and Vanguard series.

In 1952 the runway was extended to 6000 ft to handle the Vampire FB5s operated by the based 603 Squadron; and an aircraft carrier Catcher Net (never used) was installed to protect traffic on the adjacent A8 road. In 1956 a new passenger terminal was built to offer improved commercial service and five years later it was extended. After the disbandment of 603 Squadron in March 1957, the Ministry of Defence 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.

BAA Ownership 1971 to 2012

Aerial view of Edinburgh Airport
Departure gate area

The British Airports Authority took over ownership of the airport on April 1, 1971 at a time when the original terminal building was running at about eight times its design capacity. Though immediately improvements to the terminal were cosmetic, such as extra seating and TV monitors for flight information introduced, it took a couple of years for plans to be proposed for a completely new terminal and runway redesign. A public consultation on planning started in November 1971 and ended in February 1972. Initial stages of the redevelopment began in June 1973, which included a diversion of the River Almond. Work on the new terminal building, designed by Sir Robert Matthew, was started in March 1975 and opened officially by Her Majesty the Queen on 27 May 1977, 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 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 a direct service to Dublin, but for many years international flights were charter and private only. This started to changed during the late 1970s with direct services to continental Europe (Amsterdam, 1975,). By the mid-1980s direct routes included Paris, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Frankfurt and Copenhagen but until the Open Skies Act in 1990, all transatlantic flights had to first land at Prestwick, with very few exceptions. By the time BAA had been privatised in 1987, Edinburgh Airport handled over 1.8 million passengers each year; this was treble the number of 681,000 passengers handled in 1971 when BAA first took control of the airport.[5]

RAF Turnhouse which was operational near the passenger terminal of the airport for all of the post war period, was finally closed in 1997.[6]

Since the original terminal upgrade in 1977, there have been major reconstructions, including extensions of the two passenger terminal aprons and major expansion car parking facilities, including a multi storey car park in 2004. In 2005, a new 57 m (187 ft) tall air traffic control tower was completed at a cost of £10m (€16m). An extension to the terminal opened in September 2006 called the "South East Pier". This extension initially added six gates on a new pier to the South-East 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 International or Edinburgh Airport.[7] BAA announced on 23 April 2012 that it had sold Edinburgh Airport to Global Infrastructure Partners for a price of £807.2 million.[8]

Expansion

Passenger traffic at Edinburgh Airport reached a record level in 2015 with over 11.1 million passengers and over 109,000 aircraft movements.[3] In 2013, a further extension to the passenger terminal was announced, taking the terminal building up to the Edinburgh Airport tram stop. The opening of the Edinburgh Trams in May 2014 created the first rail connection to Edinburgh Airport. Whilst the number of passengers has increased, the number of flights has actually seen a decrease in 2014 due to planes operating at higher capacity.[9] The terminal building is currently being expanded with an investment of £40m ($64m). A new £25m ($40m) expansion project involving the construction of a new 6,000m² building, housing a security hall and retail areas, is also currently underway at the airport.

Terminal

Edinburgh Airport features a single, two-storey passenger terminal building. The ground level features the driveway area, 47 check-in desks (00-46) as well as the domestic and international arrivals area, several service counters and some shops. The upper floor contains the new security control followed by a walk-through duty free shop, a central airside waiting area with several shops as well as 16 departure gates (1(A, E, F, H, K), 2, 3, 3A, 4–7 and 9–12). 11 additional gates (13–23) are located in a connected pier building to the east.[10] 7 gates in the main building are equipped with jet-bridges, all others feature walk-boarding.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
Aer Lingus Regional
operated by Stobart Air 		Cork, Dublin, Shannon (resumes 28 March 2016)[11]
Air Canada Rouge Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson
Air France
operated by HOP! 		Paris-Charles de Gaulle
American Airlines Seasonal: New York–JFK[12]
Atlantic Airways Vágar[13]
Austrian Airlines Seasonal charter: Innsbruck
BH Air Seasonal charter: Burgas
British Airways London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow
British Airways
operated by BA CityFlyer 		London-City
Seasonal charter:[14] Alicante, Barcelona, Chambéry, Faro, Ibiza, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Toulouse, Venice-Marco Polo[15]
Brussels Airlines Brussels
Czech Airlines Łódź, Prague, Rzeszów (all suspended) [16]
Delta Air Lines New York–JFK (resumes 27 May 2016)[17]
easyJet Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Basel/Mulhouse, Belfast-International, Berlin-Schönefeld, Bristol, Copenhagen, Funchal, Geneva, Hamburg, Kraków, Lisbon, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Lyon, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Paphos, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Prague, Reykjavik-Keflavik, Stuttgart,[18] Tenerife-South, Venice-Marco Polo,[19] Vienna[20]
Seasonal: Bodrum, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Grenoble, Crete, Naples, Nice, Palma de Mallorca
Edelweiss Air Seasonal: Zürich[21]
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi
Eurowings Seasonal: Düsseldorf (begins 24 March 2016)[22]
Finnair Seasonal: Helsinki (begins 18 April 2016)[23]
Finnair
operated by Nordic Regional Airlines 		Seasonal: Helsinki (begins 1 November 2016)
Flybe Belfast-City, Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Exeter, Knock (begins 27 March 2016),[24] Liverpool, London-City, Manchester, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Southampton
Seasonal: Bergerac, Jersey, Newquay[25]
Seasonal charter: Geneva, Innsbruck
Flybe
operated by Loganair 		Kirkwall, Norwich, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Wick
Freebird Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya
Germanwings Cologne/Bonn[26]
Iberia Express Madrid[27]
Jet2.com Budapest, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife South
Seasonal: Alicante, Antalya (begins 23 June 2016),[28] Chambéry,[29] Dalaman (begins 24 June 2016), Dubrovnik, Faro, Geneva,[29] Heraklion (begins 27 May 2016), Ibiza, Kefalonia (begins 25 May 2016), Larnaca (begins 25 May 2016), Málaga, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos (begins 22 June 2016), Pula, Reus, Rhodes (begins 25 June 2016), Salzburg,[29] Split,[30] Turin (begins 30 December 2016), Venice-Marco Polo, Verona,[31] Vienna (begins 29 April 2016), Zakynthos (begins 31 May 2016)
Seasonal charter: Geneva
KLM Amsterdam
KLM
operated by KLM Cityhopper 		Amsterdam
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Nordic Aviation Group
operated by Adria Airways 		Seasonal: Tallinn (begins 28 May 2016) [32]
Norwegian Air Shuttle Copenhagen, Malaga, Oslo-Gardermoen, Tenerife-South[33][34]
Seasonal: Stockholm-Arlanda,
Qatar Airways Doha
Ryanair Alicante, Barcelona,[35] Bologna, Charleroi, Copenhagen,[36] Dublin, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gdańsk, Hahn, Kraków, Lanzarote, London-Stansted, Málaga, Malta, Moss, Rome-Ciampino, Santander, Tenerife-South, Weeze
Seasonal: Béziers, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Bremen, Corfu, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Gran Canaria,[35] Kaunas, Marseille, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Poitiers, Poznań
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen, Stockholm-Arlanda
Seasonal: Oslo-Gardermoen, Stavanger[37]
Thomson Airways Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Sharm el-Sheikh (suspended),[38] Tenerife-South
Seasonal: Alicante, Cancún, Corfu, Dalaman, Enfidha, Geneva, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Larnaca (begins 4 May 2016), Orlando/Sanford, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos,[39] Rhodes (begins 3 May 2016)
Transavia France Paris-Orly (begins 22 April 2016)[40]
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk
United Airlines Newark
Seasonal: Chicago-O'Hare[41]
Vueling Alicante (begins 16 June 2016), Barcelona, Paris-Orly (begins 12 March 2016), Rome-Fiumicino (begins 29 March 2016)[42]

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
DHL Aviation East Midlands
Jet2.com
operated for Royal Mail 		East Midlands, London-Stansted
Loganair
operated for Royal Mail 		Aberdeen, Inverness
Titan Airways
operated for Royal Mail 		London-Stansted
TNT Airways Liege, East Midlands
Star Air (Maersk)
operated for UPS Airlines 		Cologne/Bonn, East Midlands

Statistics

Passenger numbers

Edinburgh Airport Passenger Totals
1985–2014 (millions)
Source: These statistics are combined BAA and CAA figures pre-1996, Edinburgh Airport: A History; McCloskey, Keith. Post 1996: United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority[43]
Number of Passengers[3] Number of Movements[44]
1985 1,578,000 36,926
1986 1,651,000 36,596
1987 1,852,000 39,603
1988 2,080,000 40,664
1989 2,369,000 47,100
1990 2,495,000 47,900
1991 2,343,000 49,700
1992 2,539,000 56,400
1993 2,721,000 58,800
1994 3,001,000 61,100
1995 3,280,000 64,000
1996 3,810,000 68,800
1997 4,214,919 99,352
1998 4,588,507 100,134
1999 5,119,258 101,226
2000 5,519,372 102,393
2001 6,067,333 112,361
2002 6,930,649 118,416
2003 7,481,454 118,943
2004 8,017,547 125,317
2005 8,456,739 127,122
2006 8,611,345 126,914
2007 9,047,558 128,172
2008 9,006,702 125,550
2009 9,049,355 115,969
2010 8,596,715 108,997
2011 9,385,245 113,357
2012 9,195,061 110,288
2013 9,775,443 111,736
2014 10,160,004 109,545

Busiest routes

Busiest domestic routes (2014)
Rank Airport Passengers handled % change
2013/14
1 London-Heathrow1,472,812Increase 9
2 London-Gatwick690,363Steady 0
3 London-City352,313Increase 6
4 London-Stansted360,251Increase 10
5 Bristol322,760Increase 6
6 Birmingham284,021Steady 0
7 London-Luton259,670Decrease 5
8 Belfast-International235,552Decrease 4
9 Southampton203,151Decrease 2
10 Belfast-City142,304Increase 11
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority[3]
Busiest international routes (2014)
RankAirportPassengers handled% change
2013/14
1 Amsterdam601,535Increase 7
2 Dublin478,388Increase 16
3 Paris-Charles de Gaulle303,647Increase 9
4 Frankfurt am Main197,221Increase 15
5 Geneva153,766Increase 2
6 Alicante143,891Decrease 6
7 Palma de Mallorca143,178Steady 0
8 Newark142,526Increase 6
9 Tenerife South132,797Increase 4
10 Malaga128,095Increase 1
11 Copenhagen121,349Decrease 4
12 Milan-Malpensa112,101Increase 13
13 Kraków109,805Decrease 4
14 Madrid107,118Decrease 5
15 Faro103,782Increase 4
16 Istanbul93,029Increase 32
17 Brussels89,642Decrease 4
18 Munich89,268Increase 1
19 Basel80,861Increase 27
20 Barcelona80,538Decrease 2
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority[3]

Access and ground transportation

Road

Lothian Buses Airlink 100 airport express bus to Edinburgh

The airport lies on the A8 Glasgow-Edinburgh road, and can be easily reached by the M8 (from Glasgow) and the M9 (from Stirling). The airport is also within easy access from the M90 motorway (from Perth) via the Forth Road Bridge.

Lothian Buses provide public transportation to the airport with the Airlink 100 express bus from Edinburgh city centre,[45] as well as the number 35 direct to Ocean Terminal and N22 with the same destination but alternative route. Additionally, Stagecoach operates the newly formed JET express bus service, previously AirDirect 747 between the airport and Inverkeithing railway station and Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife.[46]

Tram

Edinburgh Airport tram terminus

The airport is served by Edinburgh Trams, a light rail link from the terminal to Edinburgh city centre. The system runs from Edinburgh Airport tram stop and travels across the western suburbs of Edinburgh on a segregated track; when the trams reach Haymarket railway station they switch to street-running mode and travel through the city along Princes Street. Edinburgh Trams began operation on 31 May 2014.[47][48]

Train

There are currently no direct rail links to Edinburgh Airport, although it lies very close to the Fife Circle and the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway lines. A project to build the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link was cancelled in 2007 after a change in Government.[49]

As a cheaper alternative to the cancelled Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project, an additional interchange station is currently being constructed on the Fife Circle Line. Edinburgh International Gateway station which will provide an interchange with airport tram services. This station and upgrades were finally approved by the Scottish Parliament in 2012.[50] The station is expected to open by December 2016.

Accidents and incidents

Accolades

References

  1. 1 2 "NATS – AIS – Home". ead-it.com.
  2. ↑ "PROVISIONAL CAA AIRPORT STATISTICS FOR DECEMBER 2015" (PDF). UK Civil Aviation Authority. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Number of Passengers, Freight and Mail include both domestic and international counterparts.
  4. ↑ "Global Infrastructure Partners". global-infra.com.
  5. ↑ Edinburgh Airport: A History; McCloskey, Keith; 2006
  6. ↑ "Site Record for Edinburgh, RAF Turnhouse". Canmore. RCAHMS. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "Heathrow: About us – Heathrow". baa.com.
  8. ↑ Heathrow. "Press Releases". baa.com.
  9. ↑ ^ CAA: UK Annual Airport Statistics
  10. ↑ "Airport maps". Edinburgh Airport.
  11. ↑ http://utv.ie/News/2015/12/06/Edinburgh-route-restored-from-Shannon-Airport-50137
  12. ↑ "New Nonstop Airline Routes – Seasonal Nonstop Flight Routes – American Airlines". aa.com.
  13. ↑ "Atlantic Airways Timetable". Atlantic Airways.
  14. ↑ "Edinburgh – The BA Source". thebasource.com.
  15. ↑ "Seasonal Flight Schedule Venice Airport Marco Polo – Seasonal Timetable". veniceairport.it.
  16. ↑ CSA Czech Airlines (3 December 2015). "Czech Airlines Temporarily Discontinues its Rzeszów – Edinburgh". Czech Airlines.
  17. ↑ Delta resumes JFK to Edinburgh Flights
  18. ↑ "New routes from the UK for 2015". easyjet.com.
  19. ↑ http://airlineroute.net/2015/10/09/u2-vce-w15/
  20. ↑ "EasyJet to launch new Edinburgh-Vienna service". Daily Record. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  21. ↑ New Edelweiss route in S14
  22. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-34672249
  23. ↑ "Finnair launches summer Edinburgh to Helsinki flights". C&IT Magazine. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  24. ↑ "Major boost for the West of Ireland as Europes largest regional airline, Flybe, to launch new year round services to Birmingham and Edinburgh from Ireland West Airport in 2016". Knock Airport. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  25. ↑ "Flybe Timetable". flybe.com.
  26. ↑ "Edinburgh Airport Timetables". Edinburgh Airport.
  27. ↑ "IBERIA Adds New Routes in S15". airlineroute.net.
  28. ↑ "Jet2 announce massive growth at Edinburgh Airport". Edinburgh Airport.
  29. 1 2 3 "Jet2 Edinburgh Routes". Jet2.
  30. ↑ "Airline Routes-Oct. 14, 2014". Air Transport World. 14 October 2014. Jet2.com begins weekly Edinburgh-Split service May 24, 2015. Archived 15 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  31. ↑ "News – Aeroporto Verona". aeroportoverona.it.
  32. ↑ Nordic Aviation launches summer flights to Edinburgh and Croatian city of Rijeka
  33. ↑ "Norwegian Adds New UK – Canary Islands Winter Routes from Oct 2015". Airlineroute.net. 13 May 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  34. ↑ Norwegian Bookable flights for July 2016
  35. 1 2 "Ryanair Flight Timetable". Ryanair.
  36. ↑ "Ryanair Adds Copenhagen – Edinburgh Service from Nov 2015". Airlineroute.net. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  37. ↑ "SAS Summer 2014". edinburghairport.com. 17 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  38. ↑ "Thomson Flight timetable from Edinburgh to Sharm El Sheikh". Edinburgh Airport. 18 August 2015.
  39. ↑ http://flights.thomson.co.uk/thomson/en-GB/timetable/findbyroute?departure=EDI&destination=PFO
  40. ↑ http://flights.edinburghairport.com//en-GB/#/result?originplace=EDI&destinationplace=ORY&outbounddate=2016-05-02&inbounddate=2016-05-09&cabinclass=Economy&adults=1&children=0&infants=0
  41. ↑ "United Airlines to offer new service between Edinburgh and Chicago". BBC News.
  42. ↑ "New Routes from Rome S16" (in Italian). 5 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  43. ↑ UK Airport Statistics
  44. ↑ Number of Movements represents total aircraft takeoffs and landings during that year.
  45. ↑ "Edinburgh Airport – City Centre frequent express shuttle". Lothian Buses. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  46. ↑ "Airdirect 747". Stagecoach Group. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  47. ↑ "Edinburgh's trams roll into action". BBC News.
  48. ↑ "Route map". Edinburgh Trams. 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  49. ↑ "It's £30m down the drain". The Scotsman (Edinburgh). 27 September 2007. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  50. ↑ Stevenson, Stewart (27 September 2007). "Edinburgh Airport Rail Link". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  51. ↑ Scotsman: Pilots praised as sheriff confirms snow caused crash, 13 November 2003
  52. ↑ Harro Ranter (27 February 2001). "ASN Aircraft accident Shorts 360-100 G-BNMT Granton Harbour". aviation-safety.net.
  53. ↑ "ASQ Award for Best Airport in Europe" Airports Council International. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012

External links

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