Fast-growing Edinburgh Airport needs more space, bosses admit, after handling record passengers

Airport needs more space across the board after notching up new 16m annual passenger record

Fast-growing Edinburgh Airport is to significantly increase the number of passengers it can handle but is confident of being able to keep up with demand, its chief executive has told a watchdog body.

Gordon Dewar said “just about everything you can think of needs extra capacity” as he announced that Scotland’s busiest airport had handled a record of almost 16 million passengers last year.

Expansion of Edinburgh Airport’s check-in area is already underway | Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman

The near 10 per cent increase on 2023 marks further strong post-Covid growth after the airport bounced back from the pandemic with a 28 per cent passenger surge on the previous year.

Mr Dewar told the Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee, which comprises community and aviation-related bodies: “The 15.8m passengers total is a spectacular result, significantly ahead of the market average, where quite a number of airports are not back at [pre-pandemic] 2019 levels.

“That’s a really good sign of the attractiveness of the Scottish market for airlines and their willingness to invest here.”

Mr Dewar said the growth had come from new and returning airlines, such as JetBlue to New York and Emirates to Dubai, along with other carriers expanding operations.

JetBlue will also operate a summer service to Boston from May, while Delta now flies twice a day year-round to New York.

Mr Dewar added: “There was a huge amount of increase from Ryanair and EasyJet in European destinations and increased frequency on existing routes.

“Generally, it’s an across-the-board, very strong message about the attractiveness of the Edinburgh market.”

The chief executive said the airport was now “actively moving forward into quite a significant period of additional capacity development.”

Such spending will increase this year by nearly half from £52m to £80m.

Mr Dewar said: “Just about everything you can think of needs extra capacity over the next two to five years.”

This includes increased aircraft fuel storage scheduled for completion in September, runway resurfacing due to start next winter and be completed in March 2026, and preliminary work to enable terminal expansion by February next year.

Major resurfacing of Edinburgh Airport’s runway is scheduled for winter 2025-26 | Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman

More space for car rental is due to be provided by January 2027 and additional flight departure gates by the following month.

Terminal expansion, including more lounge space and shops, would follow by June 2028, and more space for check-in in 2034.

A revamp is underway in parts of the check-in hall, including the area used by Ryanair - the airport’s largest airline - with completion due in the spring.

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Mr Dewar told the committee: “We are trying to ensure that we are delivering in advance of demand, in a phased way.

“We are confident we will build to keep up with that demand, but we are going to be extremely busy over the coming years to do all of that and make a very significant enhancement to the overall capability of the airport.”

The airport is also now hoping to get its long-sought new eastern access road from the Gogar roundabout approved by the city council to ease congestion on the main access route via Eastfield Road.

Mr Dewar said a revised planning application would be submitted now the council had approved in principle an adjacent housing development. The road has been earmarked for completion by January 2028.