Nostalgia: From a 1915 grass strip to plans for 13 million passengers, Turnhouse has led an exciting life

Published on Saturday 14 February 2009 10:19

THESE days it is used by nine million passengers a year and has established itself as Scotland's biggest airport.

This week Edinburgh Airport announced new details of its 40 million expansion plans, which include a large new departure lounge and would allow an extra four million passengers a year to use it.

While today it is a constant hive of activity, it has not always been like that at the Turnhouse airfield.

The airport began life as Turnhouse Aerodrome when it opened in 1915, as Britain's most northern air defence base in World War I.

It was the base for the 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, whose planes used a grass strip for landing and taking off.

Shortly after World War II, the first commercial flights took place, including an Edinburgh-London service launched by British European Airways in 1947.

The airport continued to expand during the 1960s.

A new air traffic control room was introduced in 1962 after flights reached a peak of 3000 a month.

The glass-surrounded control room offered flight controllers an all-round view of the airfield for the first time.

Just a few months later the airport played host to large crowds who gathered to wave goodbye to King Olav of Norway at the end of a week-long visit to Scotland.

Even larger crowds, of around 30,000, turned out to the Edinburgh Airshow in 1971, for the first chance to see Concorde at close quarters in Scotland. The roads around the airport were blocked as thousands more flocked to see the engineering feat in action.

In 1971, the current owners, the British Airports Authority, took over the airport and immediately expanded it by constructing a new runway and terminal building.

A new, longer runway, able to accommodate all modern airliners, was completed in 1977.

The only international services from Edinburgh during the 1980s were to Amsterdam and Dublin, but since then the number of services has expanded to almost unimaginable levels.