Edinburgh: General Airport News, Updates & Discussion

[Aviador]

It's probably through inbound tourism.

 

[Jerry]

It's probably through inbound tourism.

Yep Edinburgh is a popular destination for American tourists also there is some finance sector connections and of course the oil industry in Scotland.

 

[GeorgeNTravels]

It's probably through inbound tourism.

Correct, in 2024 the US-EDI market sat at 72% US travellers and 28% non US travellers, summary of yearly breakdown since 2019 below.

All data taken from US Department of Commerce, its worth pointing out winter tends to be more NON-US heavy, but has seen a drop in that category in the first two months of this year.

Year	Total Pax Number	US	NON-US
2025 (So far)	18,600	8,342 (44.8%)	10,258 (55.2%)
2024	542,325	390,364 (72%)	151,961 (28%)
2023	515,023	357,752 (69.5%)	157,271 (30.5%)
2022	344,513	229,508 (66.6%)	115,005 (33.4%)
2021	456	405 (88.8%)	51 (11.2%)
2020	35,372	12,936 (36.6%)	22,436 (63.4%)
2019	392,483	261,160 (66.5%)	131,323 (33.5%)

 

[Jerry]

Edinburgh is no18 in Heathrow top routes with 1.1 million passengers

What are the 24 routes from Heathrow with over 1 million passengers?

Heathrow Airport has revealed the 25 routes which have over 1 million annual passengers. New York is obviously the busiest but the rest are interesting.

www.headforpoints.com

 

[Jetsco]

Edinburgh is no18 in Heathrow top routes with 1.1 million passengers

What are the 24 routes from Heathrow with over 1 million passengers?

Heathrow Airport has revealed the 25 routes which have over 1 million annual passengers. New York is obviously the busiest but the rest are interesting.

www.headforpoints.com

EDI continues to grow at a tremendous rate. Interestingly however, domestic numbers have not recovered fully following the pandemic. International numbers are going through the roof. Many more pax are flying direct to/from EDI. The American and ME markets being good examples. The reliance on having to travel via LHR is nothing like what it used to be. The airport is forecasting pax number of considerably north of 16m in 2025. The next big targets being additional Chinese routes and a service to India. New American routes also on the radar.

 

[Aviador]

Why do you think domestic figures haven't recovered? Do you think airlines have been reluctant to take on former Flybe routes?

 

[Jetsco]

Why do you think domestic figures haven't recovered? Do you think airlines have been reluctant to take on former Flybe routes?

A combination of factors probably. The direct flight options from EDI are so much better than before. Up to 17 x transatlantic flights to/from EDI per day to the US and Canada from EDI this summer. Pax travelling to the ME and on to Australia and NZ for example have 3 x daily options via DXB or DOH. Qatar, even in what is normally the slow months, such as January this year have LF’s around 95%. Crazy high. Price point too perhaps. BA prices are normally very high. The train is now a viable option too. Normally cheaper than flying if booking in advance and the time difference isn’t a huge factor. No direct flight to/from Manchester. Limited options to/from Cardiff.

 

[Jerry]

Limited options to/from Cardiff

In 2019 111,415 passengers travelled between Cardiff and Edinburgh. In 2024 it was 16,189.

 

[Jetsco]

In 2019 111,415 passengers travelled between Cardiff and Edinburgh. In 2024 it was 16,189.

Exactly. Big drop. In the grander scheme of things, a 16m pax airport like EDI can mitigate the drop. For Cardiff this is a massive loss of business.

 

[Jerry]

Exactly. Big drop. In the grander scheme of things, a 16m pax airport like EDI can mitigate the drop. For Cardiff this is a massive loss of business.

Yep Edinburgh has likely replaced those passengers with others flying elsewhere ie the USA.

 

[Jerry]

New lounge for Edinburgh Airport

https://twitter.com/x/status/1938640316115862014

 

[Aviador]

Looks very nice.

 

[Jerry]

Edinburgh Airport runway will be closed overnight for 5 months starting November for resurfacing work.

Edinburgh Airport reveals when its runway will close for £30m resurfacing

Long-planned first major upgrade since 2008 follows series of unscheduled shutdowns for emergency repairs

www.scotsman.com

 

[Jerry]

IT problems for ATC at Edinburgh.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1996874636089610504

IT problems for ATC at Edinburgh.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1996874636089610504

All fixed

https://twitter.com/x/status/1996892245312561364

 

[Silvercity]

Edinburgh Airport: Flights resume but disruption continues

About an hour of confusion was followed by collective relief as flights began resuming, our reporter at Edinburgh Airport says.

www.bbc.com

 

[Jerry]

Tbf Edinburgh transatlantic network is impressive 97 weekly departures to 11 destinations.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1997022832480395696

 

[Jerry]

Edinburgh hoping it can get US pre-clearance

This UK airport could be first to offer fast track to America with ‘preclearance’

Exclusive: Airport boss Gordon Dewar says if Scottish and US governments can agree, ‘we’ll start building the next day’

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

Apparently both Edinburgh and Glasgow are having some sort of fuel supply issues. Several flights are diverting to other airports en route to their destinations to get fuel

https://twitter.com/x/status/2061152387944034678

 

[Aviador]

A massive logistic bottleneck hit both Edinburgh and Glasgow on Sunday 31st May, causing sudden fuel shortages that forced long-haul flights (including EDI sectors to Dubai and Paris) to divert down to Manchester and Prestwick just to fill their tanks.

While the Department for Energy Security rushed out a statement confirming this was just a short-term driver logistics issue and not a wider geopolitical crisis, it exposed a glaring vulnerability. Unlike major English hubs connected to the national Exolum pipeline network, Scotland’s busiest airports rely almost entirely on road tankers to haul jet fuel to the aprons.

With EDI hitting a record-shattering 17 million passengers, is it fundamentally sustainable for a major capital city airport to be entirely reliant on road freight for its fuel supply? If a minor driver staffing issue at a single supplier can instantly force a Emirates widebody to pit-stop in Manchester, does EDI desperately need a direct pipeline connection if it wants to be taken seriously as a global long-haul gateway?

 

[GeorgeNTravels]

My understanding is that there is an expansion to the airports fuel farm planned to be completed by the end of the year, should to my knowledge allow more fuel to be kept onsite.

But as you say with EDI wanting to grow YoY there needs to be lessons learned from this incident, and also for GLA, two central belt airports with 25 million pax between them being hit at the same time by the same incident should be a wake up call.

The more concerning thing from a PR POV was the lack of any form of update from either airport to the public, that lead to speculation that this was a much more serious scenario than it was

A massive logistic bottleneck hit both Edinburgh and Glasgow on Sunday 31st May, causing sudden fuel shortages that forced long-haul flights (including EDI sectors to Dubai and Paris) to divert down to Manchester and Prestwick just to fill their tanks.

While the Department for Energy Security rushed out a statement confirming this was just a short-term driver logistics issue and not a wider geopolitical crisis, it exposed a glaring vulnerability. Unlike major English hubs connected to the national Exolum pipeline network, Scotland’s busiest airports rely almost entirely on road tankers to haul jet fuel to the aprons.

With EDI hitting a record-shattering 17 million passengers, is it fundamentally sustainable for a major capital city airport to be entirely reliant on road freight for its fuel supply? If a minor driver staffing issue at a single supplier can instantly force a Emirates widebody to pit-stop in Manchester, does EDI desperately need a direct pipeline connection if it wants to be taken seriously as a global long-haul gateway?