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Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Airport: “Our passenger figures underline Edinburgh Airport’s growing international ambitions and ongoing demand to fly to and from this great city.”

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Airport, outlines the airport’s aim “to grow brand advocacy, redefine relationships and develop a new, sustainable business line ensuring profitability and sustainable growth”, to Marta Dimitrova.

With its compelling architecture and quirky atmosphere, Edinburgh is ideal for tourists and is enjoying popularity in the UK and across Europe as a must-see destination.

Each year, the city welcomes art enthusiasts to the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as sports fans to its European rugby tournaments, such as the Six Nations.

Edinburgh Airport serves as an important entity to provide this link between Scotland and the world. In 2016, a record 12.4 million passengers used the airport, marking 11% growth on 2015. “Our passenger figures underline Edinburgh Airport’s growing international ambitions and ongoing demand to fly to and from this great city,” enthuses Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Airport. “We have seen a solid increase in the number of international passengers, which highlights the ever-increasing draw of Edinburgh as a global destination. An increase in visitors to the city stimulates the economy, creates new jobs and offers direct international links for all of Scotland.”

21% growth in international traffic

Indeed, this increase is largely due to 21% growth in international passengers from the new services launched over the last year. 27 new international routes commenced from Edinburgh in 2016, making it a total of 132 destinations with 37 airlines. There were significant increases in services from Jet2.com (13 new routes), easyJet (7 new routes), and Vueling (9 new routes). Today, Edinburgh continues its focus on a strong domestic market, alongside increasing its European connections and long-haul destinations.

Dewar is positive that this growth will continue throughout 2017. “Over the last five years, we have increased our overall passenger numbers by 32%,” he notes.

Additionally, in March the airport welcomed record passenger numbers, representing the busiest March for a Scottish airport ever (965,000 passengers), with a 4.1% increase on the same month last year.

Meanwhile, the airport continues the redevelopment of its airside retail space. Last year it opened 13 new outlets, and refurbished nine existing outlets. “We’ve seen our retail sales increase against our 2015 figures,” says Dewar. “And it’s not just our sales that have had outstanding results; our World Duty Free store received the ‘Store of the Year’ UK Dufry Award for Excellence in Travel Retail.”

Central to the airport’s philosophy is providing a better passenger experience. The airport is investing in reducing crowd flows by improving wayfinding and passenger walking routes, increasing check-in desk numbers, and adding self-bag drop points. It has also introduced a process by which passengers with hidden disabilities can be easily identified by members of staff through the use of pin badges and lanyards.

Edinburgh Airport is shortlisted in this year’s ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards, which reflects the airport’s drive to be an award-winning airport. “We constantly set ourselves a challenge – not only do we want to be an award-winning airport, but we want to be the best business we could be, in Edinburgh and in Scotland.

“The focus is to move from delivering great operations as a business-to-business and infrastructure management company to more of a passenger-centred activity to grow brand advocacy, redefine relationships, and develop a new, sustainable business line, ensuring profitability and sustainable growth,” Dewar concludes.