Gordon Dewar: Response to Edinburgh Airport criticisms

Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar: Article "gives an unrepresentative view of the airport"

I fully agree with the headline on Alastair Dalton’s column ‘Still room for improvement at Edinburgh airport’ (Perspective, 12 August).

As a dynamic organisation in the business of connectivity and enabling people to travel to and from Scotland, we are constantly looking to improve.

Sadly the article deteriorates badly.

It is poorly researched, criticises us for matters that have been long resolved and gives an unrepresentative view of the airport.

BACKGROUND: Alastair Dalton: Still room for improvement at Edinburgh airport

It surprises me greatly that the column cites our security operation in this light.

Last summer we faced delays in security and our passengers let us know they wanted a smoother and faster process.

We listened to them and this year we have invested time, new technology and human resource so that we now have one of – if not the – fastest and most effective passenger security halls of any UK airport.

Our vastly improved security hall also aims to be as transparent as possible, which is why we launched an online resource allowing departing passengers to see real time information on queuing times.

The technology lets us track passenger flow through security more accurately as well giving the opportunity to share live queue times on the Edinburgh Airport website via social media and it is also visible to departing passengers on a large screen prior to entering the security hall.

This summer on some days we have seen 25,000 departing passengers.

Up to 3,000 passengers an hour travel through security.

We aim to make that as smooth as possible while ensuring their safety.

This week we accepted the criticism that our previous Persons of Reduced Mobility service provider was not doing nearly well enough.

This is why their contract was ended.

We are now working extremely closely with our new contractor in delivering a better service.

This week’s RAC parking price comparison story compares apples with pears.

Airport car parks have different products and packages and it seems unrepresentative to extract individual figures.

Our offering of one-hour free pick-up and drop-off for all blue badge holders – and the fact that we are one of only six airports in UK that offer a free drop-off and pick-up area – is, I believe, another reason that we continue to grow, are able to be competitive, create jobs and contribute £1 billion annually for Scotland’s economy.

Figures released just this week show that in July 1.33 million passengers passed through the airport.

This makes it the busiest month ever at a Scottish airport.