Paisley's outrage is turned on airport

But now the formidable Unionist leader has turned his fire on Edinburgh Airport over the way it treats passengers flying to Northern Ireland.

He has vented his fury over what he believes are draconian security measures and an uncomfortable waiting area. A special police checkpoint vets travellers heading to Belfast from Edinburgh, before they are guided into a cramped waiting room away from other passengers.

The arrangements, which date back to the height of IRA bombing campaigns in the 1980s, have been abandoned by most other mainland UK airports.

Mr Paisley today led calls for an end to the practice and better facilities for those travelling to Northern Ireland.

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party was backed by Scots politicians who said Edinburgh travellers should benefit from the "peace dividend". Mr Paisley said: "I don’t understand why they still carry on doing that when other airports haven’t done it for years. I’ve never experienced it at any other airport I’ve flown from within the UK in recent years.

"It shows they haven’t updated their security policy, which isn’t fair.

"It makes people feel like they’re under suspicion."

He also condemned conditions in the waiting room for Belfast passengers, which he said was often overcrowded.

"That room is just like a cattle wagon without feed," he added.

Regular passengers on the Edinburgh-Belfast route were equally critical. Charity fundraiser Paul Thompson, 25, of Stockbridge, who regularly flies to Belfast on business, said: "The separate room is cramped and far too small. I understand that the airport was built with a separate gate, but why do they make gate 14 only for Northern Irish flights now? They could mix it up so that different flights flew from that gate as well."

Trainee teacher Zelda Breingen, 24, of East Werberside, Inverleith, who regularly flies to Northern Ireland to visit family, added: "Other airports have changed it, so why can’t Edinburgh?"

Heathrow and other major airports have abandoned their special arrangements for flights to Northern Ireland.

Of 20 airports in the UK with flights to Belfast, only five segregate Northern Irish passengers: Newcastle, East Midlands, Blackpool, Stansted and Edinburgh. At least one of those, East Midlands, is planning to change its arrangements soon.

Lothians MSP Kenny MacAskill said: "My view is that there has been a sea-change in Northern Irish politics and there should be a peace dividend to mark that. Part of that dividend should be easier travel to Northern Ireland for Scots and for people from there visiting Scotland."

A spokesman for Welcome Northern Ireland added: "We used to be put at the extremities of airports, for obvious security reasons, but things have changed now in most places. Even in Heathrow, flights from Belfast fly into gate two like other domestic flights.

"We have excellent tourism links with Scotland and we wouldn’t want anything that would put people off flying from there to Belfast, but security is something that we ordinary people on the street can’t understand and I’m sure they have a reason for doing it."

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh Airport said the separate gate was due to the structure of the airport.

"In terms of there being a separate gate, that’s remained that way for many years and until the airport is expanded, I don’t see that changing," she said. "We fully support the police presence at the airport at whatever gate they consider necessary."

She added: "We are not prepared to discuss airport security."

A police spokeswoman said: "We check flights sporadically at Edinburgh Airport, regardless of where they come from and where there are going to.

"Security is a high priority and we do respond to intelligence information but we do not aim to upset people or discriminate against anyone.

"In the current climate most people understand the need for vigilance."