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Coordinates: 55°57′00″N 003°22′21″W / 55.95000°N 3.37250°W / 55.95000; -3.37250
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| [[British Airways]] operated by [[BA Cityflyer]] | London-City
| [[British Airways]] operated by [[BA Cityflyer]] | London-City
| [[Continental Airlines]] | Newark
| [[Continental Airlines]] | Newark
| [[Delta Air Lines]] | New York-JFK
| [[Delta Air Lines]] | New York-JFK [ends 19 September]
| [[EasyJet]] | Alicante [seasonal], Amsterdam, Belfast-International, Bristol, Geneva, Kraków, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Nice [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Paris-Charles de Gaulle
| [[EasyJet]] | Alicante [seasonal], Amsterdam, Belfast-International, Bristol, Geneva, Kraków, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Nice [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Paris-Charles de Gaulle
| [[Flybe]] | Belfast-City, Bergerac [seasonal], Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Manchester, Newquay [seasonal], Norwich, Rennes [seasonal], Southampton
| [[Flybe]] | Belfast-City, Bergerac [seasonal], Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Manchester, Newquay [seasonal], Norwich, Rennes [seasonal], Southampton

Revision as of 13:20, 12 June 2009

Edinburgh Airport

Port-adhair Dùn Èideann
File:BAA Edinburgh logo.png
Summary
Airport typePublic
Owner/OperatorBAA
ServesEdinburgh
Lothian
Scottish Borders
LocationTurnhouse, Edinburgh
Elevation AMSL136 ft / 41 m
Coordinates55°57′00″N 003°22′21″W / 55.95000°N 3.37250°W / 55.95000; -3.37250
Websitewww.edinburghairport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 2,557 8,389 Asphalt
12/30 1,798 5,899 Asphalt
Statistics (2008)
Aircraft Movements125,550
Passengers9,006,702
Sources: UK AIP at NATS[1]
Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[2]

Edinburgh Airport (IATA: EDI, ICAO: EGPH) is located at Turnhouse in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2008, handling 9,006,702 passengers. It was also the seventh busiest airport in the UK by passengers and the fifth busiest by aircraft movements.[2] 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.

The airport is owned and operated by BAA, which also owns and operates six other UK airports,[3] and is itself owned by an international consortium led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.[4]

The airport is a hub for EasyJet, Flyglobespan and Ryanair.

The present terminal building, designed by Robert Matthew, was constructed in 1977 and has been upgraded in recent years, with new car parking facilities and an extended arrivals hall. A new control tower was completed in 2005.

There are plans for expansion of the airport, with passenger numbers expected to reach 26 million per annum by 2030.


History

Turnhouse Aerodrome was the most northerly British air defence base in World War I. The small base opened in 1915 and it was used to house the 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, 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, fighter command took control over the airfield and a runway of 3,900ft was paved to handle the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire.

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.

View of the control tower from the terminal building

In 1952 the runway was extended to 6000ft to handle the Vampire FB5s. In 1956 a new passenger terminal was built to offer improved commercial service and five years later it was extended. The Ministry of Defence transferred ownership to the Ministry of Aviation in 1960 to offer improved commercial service to the airport. In 1971 the British Airports Authority took over the airport and immediately started to expand it by constructing a new runway and terminal building.

Although the original runway 13/31 (which is now 12/30) served the airport well, its alignment had the disadvantage of suffering from severe crosswinds, so movements were transferred to a new runway (07/25, which is has since become 06/24). This runway, completed in 1977 is 8399ft in length, and was able to take all modern airliners. 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.

The only international services from Edinburgh during the 1980s were to Amsterdam and Dublin, but in the following years links were opened to destinations in France and Germany. By the end of the decade BAA had been privatised and funds were used to extend the current terminal building and create parking aprons.

In 2005, a new 57 metre 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 (14 - 19) on a new pier to the South-East of the earlier building next to departure gates 12 & 12b. A further 4 gates (20 - 23) were added to the South East Pier at the end of 2008 as well as a very controversial Gate 13 between the earlier terminal building (Gate 12b) and the newer gates in the South East Pier.

Aircraft from Ryanair and Flybe at Edinburgh Airport
Flybe Embraer 195 at Edinburgh Airport

History of Edinburgh Airport's passenger numbers[5]:

Year Passengers
1995 3,280,000
1996 3,810,000
1997 4,160,000
1998 4,540,000
1999 5,090,000
2000 5,494,000
2001 6,038,341
2002 6,930,649
2003 7,481,454
2004 8,017,577
2005 8,456,739
2006 8,611,345
2007 9,047,558
2008 9,006,702
2020 20,000,000 (projected)
2030 26,000,000 (projected)

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled airlines

AirlinesDestinations
Aer Arann Cork, Galway
Aer Lingus Cork, Dublin
Air France operated by CityJet London-City, Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air Transat Toronto-Pearson [seasonal]
Austrian Airlines operated by Tyrolean Airways Vienna
BMI London-Heathrow
BMI operated by BMI Regional Brussels, Copenhagen, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Zurich
Bmibaby Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands
British Airways London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick
British Airways operated by BA Cityflyer London-City
Continental Airlines Newark
Delta Air Lines New York-JFK [ends 19 September]
EasyJet Alicante [seasonal], Amsterdam, Belfast-International, Bristol, Geneva, Kraków, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Nice [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Flybe Belfast-City, Bergerac [seasonal], Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Manchester, Newquay [seasonal], Norwich, Rennes [seasonal], Southampton
Flybe operated by Loganair Inverness, Isle of Man, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Wick
Flyglobespan Alicante, Arrecife, Barcelona [seasonal], Dalaman [seasonal], Dubrovnik [seasonal], Faro, Funchal, Geneva [seasonal], Hamilton [seasonal], Ibiza [begins 27 June; seasonal], Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Málaga, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tenerife-South
Germanwings Cologne/Bonn
Jet2.com Avignon [seasonal], Chambery [seasonal], Düsseldorf, Ibiza [seasonal], La Rochelle [seasonal], Minorca [seasonal], Murcia, Olbia [seasonal], Pisa [seasonal], Prague, Toulouse [seasonal], Venice-Marco Polo [seasonal]
KLM, also operated by KLM Cityhopper Amsterdam
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Norwegian Air Shuttle Copenhagen, Oslo-Gardermoen
Ryanair Alicante, Altenburg, Berlin-Schönefeld, Billund, Bologna, Bournemouth, Bratislava, Bremen, Cagliari, Carcassonne, Dublin, Hahn, Haugesund [begins 4 July], Krakow, Limoges, Lodz, Málaga, Malta, Marseille, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Poitiers [seasonal], Poznan, Rome-Ciampino, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Weeze, Wrocław, Zadar
Scandinavian Airlines System Stockholm-Arlanda [ends 28 September]

Charter airlines

AirlinesDestinations
Air Europa Palma de Mallorca [seasonal]
BH Air Bourgas, Varna, Plovdiv
BMI Ibiza [seasonal]
Eurocypria Airlines Larnaca, Paphos
Iberworld Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Madrid, Tenerife-South
Karthago Airlines Monastir
Monarch Airlines Alicante [seasonal], Arrecife [seasonal], Dalaman [seasonal], Fuerteventura [seasonal], Ibiza [seasonal], Larnaca [seasonal], Las Palmas de Gran Canaria [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Reus [seasonal], Rhodes [seasonal], Tenerife-South [seasonal], Zakynthos [seasonal]
Onur Air Bodrum, Dalaman
Thomas Cook Airlines Dalaman [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [begins 16 June; seasonal]
Thomson Airways Palma de Mallorca [seasonal]

Cargo airlines

AirlinesDestinations
Atlantic Airlines Coventry
DHL East Midlands
DHL operated by Exin Aberdeen
Jet2.com Bristol, London-Stansted
Titan Airways Larnaca, Paphos
UPS operated by Star Air Cologne, East Midlands

Access and ground transportation

The airport is easily reached by the M9 and M90 motorways and is close to the Fife Circle and Edinburgh-Glasgow railway lines, although it has no station on either line. Express bus services link the airport to Edinburgh City Centre, Inverkeithing railway station and Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife. Lothian Buses provide public transportation to the airport.

2008 traffic statistics

Gate lounge area at Edinburgh Airport
Aircraft from British Airways and Flybe at Edinburgh Airport
Busiest international routes out of Edinburgh Airport (2008)[2]
Rank Airport Passengers handled % Change Airlines Served (2008)
1 Amsterdam Airport Schiphol 465,654 Decrease7.32 easyJet, KLM
2 Dublin Airport 449,562 Increase1.12 Aer Lingus, Ryanair
3 Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport 278,694 Increase16.03 Air France, easyJet
4 Frankfurt Airport 166,003 Decrease5.87 Lufthansa
5 Newark Liberty International Airport 156,039 Increase1.69 Continental Airlines
6 Alicante Airport 151,067 Increase39.32 easyJet, Flyglobespan, Monarch, Ryanair
7 Geneva Cointrin International Airport 120,502 Increase2.64 easyJet, Flyglobespan
8 Palma de Mallorca Airport 112,618 Decrease10.57 Air Europa, easyJet, Flyglobespan, Ryanair, Thomson
9 Madrid Barajas Airport 105,916 Increase19.86 easyJet, Iberworld
10 Málaga Airport 96,735 Decrease14.78 Flyglobespan, Ryanair
11 Munich Airport 90,179 Increase29.07 easyJet
12 Milan Malpensa Airport 88,562 Increase67.68 easyJet
13 Faro Airport (Portugal) 69,854 Decrease11.94 Flyglobespan
14 Barcelona Airport 65,532 Decrease30.65 Flyglobespan
15 New York Kennedy Airport 61,101 n/a Delta Air Lines

Future plans

In April, 2008 work began on the resurfacing of the main runway. This project, at a cost of £16m,[6] was due to be completed by the end of November, 2008 and will prolong the life of the runway for a further 15 years.[7]. In the end, the work was completed around 10 days ahead of schedule and on budget.[8].

A £40m extension to the departure lounge is to be built, with work commencing in December, 2008.[7]

Edinburgh Trams is due to connect to the airport in 2011.[9]

£250m is to be spent on the airport over the next decade.[7] BAA has made provision in its Master Plan for the airport for an extension to the current runway 06/24, which would allow larger aircraft to serve longer haul destinations. There are plans to expand further by adding a new runway and terminal by 2020 which would accommodate up to 20 million passengers per annum.[10] BAA projects that by 2030 Edinburgh Airport will be handling 26 million passengers per annum. Development has recently begun at Edinburgh Airport on a £40 million departure lounge extension project which will see the current lounge double in size as well as a new security search area and a greater choice of bars, restaurants and shops. The project is expected to be completed by late 2010. [11]

Accidents

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, but there were no passengers on board. A fatal accident inquiry later blamed a build up 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. [12][13]

References