Exclusive:Edinburgh Airport launches 'most ambitious' expansion as traffic soars

Soaring passenger numbers at Edinburgh Airport will see last year’s record busiest day surpassed ten times this summer as it embarks on its most ambitious expansion plans yet.

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said a five-year programme of "very substantial investment" was getting underway to keep pace with the “huge amounts” of extra capacity being added by larger aircraft, more frequent flights and new routes.

Edinburgh Airport is expecting to handle more passengers again this year after its record 15.8 million in 2024 | Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman

New aircraft stands, more flight departure gates and an expansion of the terminal’s south-east pier are among planned works.

Scotland’s busiest airport handled a record 15.8 million passengers and Mr Dewar said the figure now topped one million in most months.

Details of the expansion plans come two weeks after Glasgow Airport announced the “comprehensive transformation” of its terminal to “significantly enhance the passenger experience”.

Mr Dewar told the Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee: “The busiest day last year will not be in our top ten this year.

“There is huge amounts happening across the airport in terms of additional connectivity and routes, and that feeds through in terms of passengers ... larger aircraft and longer-haul routes being a big part of that growth.”

The airport expects Friday, July 11 to be its busiest day this year with 62,992 passengers, with nine other days forecast to see more than 61,000 passengers each.

This compares to last year’s busiest day, Monday, July 22, with 56,310 passengers.

Mr Dewar said the latest passenger figures, showing a 6.7 per cent increase in January to March compared to a year ago, told “another story of continued growth”.

Hainan and United Airlines’ expansion

Last month, Hainan Airlines announced its flights to Beijing would be extended year round from October when United Airlines said its Washington DC flights would be similarly extended apart from part of January and February.

Mr Dewar said turbulence over the political situation in the US had not affected those routes thanks to Edinburgh’s popularity among American visitors.

He said: “We have seen incredibly strong growth and as yet are not seeing any softening of that. But that may be because we are dominated by inbound [passengers].

“We are also seeing growth in the Canadian routes such as a Montreal route announced by Air Canada. I think this is at least in part because the Canadians want different destinations than America.”

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Mr Dewar said of the outlook for airport: “It’s going to be an exceptionally busy - we have got the most ambitious capital investment programme we have ever seen over the next five years.

New aircraft stands

“The first things you’ll see are new [aircraft] stands, opposite stand 20 down the south-east pier. We are building six of them this year and there’s scope to do more.

“The south east pier itself is going to be extended. That project will probably start to appear in terms of enabling works later in the year - quite visible change happening.

“That’s the start of a programme of very substantial investment.”

Spending will be increased from £52 million last year to £80m.

Mr Dewar had told the committee in February that “just about everything you can think of needs extra capacity”, with other work including more flight departure gates, and expanded airside lounge and check-in hall space.