Edinburgh Airport (EDI) | News & Developments

Passenger numbers at Edinburgh Airport increased by over 11% in January, with a surge in domestic traffic seeing over 580,000 passengers travel through the terminal.

A total of 586,184 passengers travelled through Edinburgh Airport last month, an increase of 11.5% compared to January 2013.

The airport saw a total of 321,502 domestic passengers, up 9.4% on the previous year.

International traffic saw an increase of 14.3% on January 2013, with a total of 264,682 passengers.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive, said: “We’ve enjoyed a strong start to 2014 with our domestic carriers seeing a steady increase in passenger numbers in January.

“The introduction of Virgin Atlantic’s Little Red service to Heathrow has seen an extra 25,000 passengers travel through Edinburgh Airport compared to the same time last year.

Click to expand...

Hello,

It's hard to believe we're already more than five weeks into 2014 – a year which will be hugely exciting for Edinburgh Airport. Following the Christmas and New Year break, our EAST Expansion project is continuing full steam ahead and I'd like to give you an update on progress.

At the beginning of the month we passed another crucial milestone in the project. Having finished creating the foundations, we've now started to put up the building's steelwork. It won't be long until the new building starts to take shape. If you're passing through the airport over the next few weeks be sure to stop and have a look at the site.

We've installed a time-lapse camera on top of the terminal building which is capturing the build on a daily basis. The camera has produced some amazing pictures so make sure to have a look at our image gallery for the latest photographs.

I wanted to use this blog to share with you some of the future milestones of the project which we are on track to reach over the coming months.

Building 'the box'

The steelwork is now well underway and should be finished by the end of March. Running alongside the steelwork, the end of February will see work start on the roof structure and this will continue until the beginning of May.

Wall cladding works will start at the end of March, taking around two months to complete.

We're also planning a traditional 'topping out' ceremony for April, an event traditionally held when the highest beam of a building is placed. With time passing so fast, April will be here before we know it.

Behind the scenes

Now that the new extension is physically taking shape it's easy to forget the hard work going on behind the scenes to make sure we can migrate the necessary functions over to the new building to make sure our passengers are not affected.

Teams from Engineering, Security and IT are working hard to make sure everything is in place to make the transition as easy as possible. The first lighting and power supplies will be switched on in mid-April, with the first floor to follow at the end of July.

The Security team is a hub of activity at the moment with two brand new body scanners having recently been installed. These are the first major pieces of equipment to be installed in the terminal and are a part of a vital engagement project so security staff members are fully trained before the new security search area opens in September.

Of course the new security area will look different so it is important that our colleagues in security feel comfortable in their new surroundings. Our Business Improvement team have been working tirelessly on this and have been engaging with colleagues all over the airport. We have even created a 'dummy' version of a new security lane in one of our airport hangars. This has allowed Security Officers to see the actual size and scale of the new security lanes for themselves. We've held a number of engagement sessions with security staff members to make sure questions or concerns are answered. The feedback has been very positive which is great.

Although it is still several months away, it won't be long until we start the complex process of moving current security processes into the new building. It's vitally important that we get this right so over the coming months you may see changes to the way you go through security. These changes will mean that, at one point, we will have both current and new security halls open at the same time. This may even involve you being one of the first passengers to test out our new security hall – something which we're really looking forward to.

I hope this blog has given you a taste of what's happening and how our EAST Expansion project is progressing. It's certainly going to be a busy few months for Edinburgh Airport.

Until next time,

John

Click to expand...

THE chief executive of Edinburgh Airport has questioned a decision to subsidise flights between Dundee and London with public money – claiming the move has “implications for fair competition”.

In an open letter, Gordon Dewar called on the Dundee City Council leader to justify the use of taxpayers’ money to retain routes to Stansted Airport – branded “vital” by the authority – when Edinburgh has 44 daily flights to the English capital.

Describing Dundee Airport as “publicly owned and loss making”, Mr Dewar said the council money would be better spent supporting a direct coach service to Edinburgh Airport.

It has been reported Dundee City Council will pay half the cost of running Dundee Airport’s new stand-in service to Stansted until a new operator can take over later this year. But Dundee council chiefs are tight-lipped about the value of their investment due to “commercial confidentiality”.

In his letter, Mr Dewar said: “From an economic appraisal perspective [Dundee City Council leader Ken Guild] would appear to be considering investing taxpayers’ money in saving a maximum of one hour’s access time but offering two frequencies a day to a single airport versus 44 frequencies a day to a choice of six London airports.

“Saving one hour’s drive at the Dundee end of the journey may therefore cost hours of waiting time in London waiting for a very infrequent service.”

He said he would be interested to hear the “economic justification” for the “saving between 20 and 60 minutes per passenger valued at something of the order of £2 per trip”.

Mr Dewar called for a meeting to discuss the issue and the “implications for fair competition and private investment in infrastructure for Scotland”.

Mr Guild said the London route had played an important role in the “ongoing regeneration of Dundee”.

He said: “We are keen that this service continues for the benefit of the city.”

Aviation expert Laurie Price, from Mott MacDonald consultants, expressed sympathy for Dundee’s position, arguing that, by Mr Dewar’s reasoning, Edinburgh Airport operations should be transferred to 
Glasgow.

He said: “As a private company, of course Gordon Dewar doesn’t want this but equally why is the tram link, being developed with public money, going out to the airport? How much public money went into that?

“I would imagine the subsidy going in from Dundee for air services from London is infinitely less than the public expenditure on the Edinburgh tram.”

Transport Scotland took a very political stance, insisting it will support both airports.

“We are confident there is a place for services from Dundee,” a spokesman said. “In Scotland’s increasingly competitive aviation sector we want to secure a future for the airport.”


The Letter


Dear Councillor Guild,


I noted with interest the recent media coverage around the creation of a new route between Dundee and Stansted airports. In particular, I was interested in the assertion that Dundee City Council was devoting funds to making the route viable.

I have to say that given the significant travel options and minimal travel time between Dundee and the airports in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, we were surprised with the announcement the description of the route as ‘vital’.

I would seek clarification on the application of a ‘development area’ in this case and the double subsidy that a route subsidy represents when operating out of a publically owned and loss making airport.

Can I ask you to review your decision and meet with me to explore getting better connections between Dundee and Edinburgh Airport thereby using public funds more effectively?...


...Perhaps a better response to improving connectivity and accessibility through investment would be to consider supporting a direct coach service to Edinburgh Airport or perhaps seeking a route change from the existing Dundee-Edinburgh service.

It is my belief, that the cost of subsidy should be measured against the alleged ‘benefit’ of avoiding a maximum of one hour’s worth of travel, whether that is by rail or road...


...I would very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss this issue with you further where we can perhaps deal with the other issues of distortions of markets and implications for fair competition and private investment in infrastructure for Scotland.

Click to expand...

Chris99 said:

Once this first phase is complete they'll still have £125 million remaining in the investment pot. Any thoughts on what further improvements are likely - runway extension maybe?

Click to expand...

david_gla said:

^^ EDI needs more space to park aircraft whether it be a new pier or more remote parking space.

Click to expand...

Kenspeckle said:

I think the plan is to extend the southeast pier for more contact stands. Link to the current EDI masterplan for anyone who's interested - skip to the end for the development phasing. However, I think this was produced before GIP bought the airport so I'm unsure how wedded they'll be to it.

Click to expand...

heresjohnny said:

looks like an extension to an industrial unit in lanarkshire.

still, looks better without the purple i think.

Click to expand...

BA's robust domestic loads leave Little Red trailing
By: DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON14:36 28 Feb 2014

British Airways claims it has not suffered market share to Virgin Atlantic’s UK domestic carrier Little Red, as the spin-off airline approaches one year of operations.

Little Red began services in March 2013 on routes between London Heathrow and the cities of Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

But UK Civil Aviation Authority statistics for domestic scheduled operations show that Little Red’s load factor has been poor compared with that of BA.

The latest data available, for November 2013, puts BA’s load factor at 72% while Little Red’s is less than half this figure, at 35%.

Little Red’s highest loads last year were still below the mid-40 mark at a point when BA’s were approaching 80%.

BA chief executive Keith Williams, speaking during parent firm IAG’s full-year results event, said the carrier was “very pleased” with its performance against Little Red.

“What we’re seeing is no loss of market share [away from] BA. We’ve increased our flying from Scotland into London, that’s going particularly well,” he says.

“So in terms of retaining our connecting traffic through Heathrow, it’s still the same as it was.”

Virgin Atlantic chief Craig Kreeger had admitted last November that load factors were light, but said that this had been expected and that the airline was starting to see a number of connecting passengers using the service.

Click to expand...

My last blog focused on the progress we’ve made so far on our EAST Expansion project and what milestones are coming up. I wanted this blog to follow on from that and look at some of these future milestones in a bit more detail – particularly the interesting way our project teams are working together.

To maximise efficiency and to achieve the earliest possible completion date for the project, we’ve been agile in elements of our approach to development, design, procurement and construction. Several workstreams are at different stages and are planned to allow overlap in the project life cycle. Mike Smith, Project Manager, has been overseeing this part of the project which means that there’s no point in time where work stands still. Something is always being planned, designed, procured or built.

Implementing such flexibility has allowed Mike and his team to manage a process of building before knowing what the inside will look like, something which most would find a rather scary prospect.

It may be surprising to learn that the initial designs for the extension only began in June last year. In the nine months since I’m sure you’ll agree that our airport is now almost unrecognisable. Working with such an experienced team has meant we can merge project timelines together and we’ve calculated that we’re between four and six months ahead of a more traditional project completion date.

To quickly recap, the steelwork is now almost finished, with the cladding, glazing and roofing work set to start shortly. This should take up until the end of May to complete. In the meantime, many other workstreams are underway and when work on the outer shell of the building is almost complete, work will begin on the internal fit-out of the new security hall, shops and office space. This part of the project is going through the tender process at the moment and is scheduled to start in the middle of April.

The relocation of the existing security hall is very complex and requires detailed planning. Mike and his team have been working closely with their security colleagues to come up with the detail of how the relocation will be carried out. It’s what we call our ‘Operational Readiness Plan’.

A huge amount of work is also going on behind the scenes to plan the interior of the new building. Our Commercial team are currently working on the designs for the seven new shop units and twelve property units which will also make up part of the building. Thousands of bespoke pieces of equipment are also on order, from small tiles and light fittings to large air conditioning units and over 140 individual doors.

With things moving so quickly, Mike and his team have not lost their focus on making sure all of the different work streams are working well together and the results are speaking for themselves.

For the latest photographs of the build, check out our image library.

Click to expand...