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
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)
Passengers 11,114,587 Passenger change 14–15 9.4% Aircraft movements 115,286 Movements change 14–15 5.2%
Sources: UK AIP at NATS Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority

Edinburgh Airport (Template:Lang-gd) (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 11.1 million passengers in that year, an increase of 9.4% compared with 2014. It was also the sixth busiest airport in the UK by total passengers in 2015. It is located 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) west of the city centre and is situated just off the M8 and M9 motorways. It is owned and operated by Global Infrastructure Partners, which also owns and operates Gatwick Airport and London City Airport. The airport features two runways and one passenger terminal, and employs about 2,500 people.

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 1916 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 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 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.

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

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. BAA announced on 23 April 2012 that it had sold Edinburgh Airport to Global Infrastructure Partners for a price of £807.2 million.

Expansion

Passenger traffic at Edinburgh Airport reached a record level in 2015 with over 11.1 million passengers and over 109,000 aircraft movements. 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. 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. On the 23rd of February 2016, Ryanair announced a growth of 20% bringing annual passenger capacity from the airline at Edinburgh Airport to 2.5 million. This was coupled with the news of six new services to Ryanair's winter schedule from Edinburgh in addition to more services on its popular European destinations. Furthermore, in February 2016, consultancy firm, Biggar Economics, announced that Edinburgh Airport contributes almost £1 billion into the Scottish economy every year.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Aer Lingus Regional operated by Stobart Air	Cork, Dublin, Shannon
Air Canada Rouge	Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson
Air France operated by HOP!	Paris-Charles de Gaulle
American Airlines	Seasonal: New York–JFK
Atlantic Airways	Vágar
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: Alicante, Barcelona, Chambéry, Faro, Geneva, Ibiza, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Toulouse, Venice-Marco Polo, Zurich
Brussels Airlines	Brussels
Delta Air Lines	New York–JFK
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, Tenerife-South, Venice-Marco Polo, Vienna Seasonal: Bodrum, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Grenoble, Heraklion, Naples, Nice, Palma de Mallorca
Edelweiss Air	Seasonal: Zürich
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi
Eurowings	Seasonal: Düsseldorf
Eurowings operated by Germanwings	Cologne/Bonn
Finnair	Seasonal: Helsinki
Flybe	Belfast-City, Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Exeter, Knock, Liverpool, London-City, Manchester, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Southampton Seasonal: Bergerac, Jersey, Newquay Seasonal charter: Geneva
Flybe operated by Loganair	Inverness, Kirkwall, Norwich, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Wick
Iberia Express	Madrid
Jet2.com	Alicante, Budapest, Fuerteventura (begins 19 December 2016), Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife South, Vienna Seasonal: Almeria (begins 27 April 2017), Chambéry, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Faro, Geneva, Girona (begins 28 April 2017), Heraklion, Ibiza, Kefalonia, Larnaca, Málaga, Menorca, Murcia (resumes 31 March 2017), Naples (begins 29 April 2017), Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Pula, Reus, Rhodes ,Salzburg, Split, Thessaloniki (begins 30 May 2017), Turin (begins 30 December 2016), Venice-Marco Polo, Verona, Zakynthos Seasonal charter: Geneva
KLM	Amsterdam
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper	Amsterdam
Lufthansa	Frankfurt
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Barcelona, Copenhagen, Málaga, Oslo-Gardermoen, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Stockholm-Arlanda
Qatar Airways	Doha
Ryanair	Alicante, Barcelona, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Charleroi, Copenhagen, Dublin, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gdańsk, Gran Canaria, Hahn, Kraków, Lanzarote, London-Stansted, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Malta, Moss (ends 29 October 2016), Poznań, Rome-Ciampino, Santander, Tenerife-South, Warsaw-Modlin (begins 30 October 2016), Weeze Seasonal: Béziers, Bremen, Corfu, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Kaunas, Marseille, Pisa, Poitiers
Scandinavian Airlines	Copenhagen (ends 1 January 2017), Stockholm-Arlanda Seasonal: Oslo-Gardermoen
Thomson Airways	Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Antalya, Burgas, Cancún, Corfu, Dalaman, Geneva, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Larnaca, Menorca, Orlando-Sanford, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Pula (begins 2 May 2017), Rhodes (begins 6 May 2017)
Transavia France	Paris-Orly
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk
United Airlines	Newark Seasonal: Chicago-O'Hare
Vueling	Alicante, Barcelona, Paris-Orly, Rome-Fiumicino
WOW air	Seasonal: Reykjavik-Keflavik (begins 13 July 2016)

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
ASL Airlines Belgium	East Midlands, Liège
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
Star Air (Maersk) operated for UPS Airlines	Cologne/Bonn, East Midlands

Statistics

Passenger numbers

Edinburgh Airport Passenger Totals 1985–2015 (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

	Number of Passengers	Number of Movements
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
2015	11,114,587	115,286

Busiest routes

Busiest domestic routes (2015)

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% change 2014/15
1	London-Heathrow	1,383,915	6
2	London-Gatwick	672,948	3
3	London-Stansted	622,172	73
4	London-City	532,857	51
5	Bristol	351,954	9
6	Birmingham	277,911	2
7	London-Luton	266,562	3
8	Belfast-International	262,773	12
9	Southampton	194,058	4
10	Belfast-City	137,972	3
11	Manchester	114,095	4
12	East Midlands	95,307	3
13	Cardiff	69,229	20
14	Exeter	45,115	18
15	Sumburgh	44,786	0
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority

Busiest international routes (2015)

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% change 2014/15
1	Amsterdam	621,195	3
2	Dublin	540,651	13
3	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	300,611	1
4	Frankfurt am Main	192,077	3
5	Copenhagen	191,896	58
6	Madrid	162,499	52
7	Geneva	162,353	4
8	Palma de Mallorca	157,056	10
9	Alicante	150,000	4
10	Málaga	144,401	13
11	Newark	143,414	1
12	Tenerife-South	135,462	2
13	Barcelona	121,895	51
14	Kraków	117,527	7
15	Doha	115,529	114
16	Milan-Malpensa	113,892	2
17	Brussels	100,433	12
18	Faro	99,255	4
19	Istanbul	97,498	5
20	Munich	95,437	7
21	Basel/Mulhouse	84,779	5
22	Stockholm-Arlanda	83,605	35
23	Oslo-Gardermoen	81,774	11
24	Prague	73,992	6
25	Abu Dhabi	72,773
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority

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, 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.

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.

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.

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 Gateway station will provide an interchange with airport tram services. This station and upgrades were finally approved by the Scottish Parliament in 2012. The station is expected to open by December 2016.

Accidents and incidents

• On 27 February 2001, a Loganair Shorts 360 (G-BNMT) operating a Royal Mail flight to Belfast, crashed into the Firth of Forth shortly after taking off from Edinburgh at 1730 GMT. Both crew members were killed, and there were no passengers on board. A fatal accident inquiry later blamed a buildup of slush in the aircraft's engines before the crash. Protective covering had not been fitted to the engine intakes while the aircraft was parked for several hours in heavy snow at Edinburgh.

Accolades

• 2011 – 2nd Best Airport in Europe of the Airport Service Quality Awards by Airports Council International

External links

Media related to Edinburgh Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee
• EDINBURGH AIRPORT, TURNHOUSE (1971) (archive film from the National Library of Scotland: SCOTTISH SCREEN ARCHIVE)
• Current weather for EGPH at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for EDI at Aviation Safety Network