Three years after its acquisition by Global Infrastructure Partners, Edinburgh Airport is firmly embracing a new era of competition. The airport’s dynamic approach has yielded positive results, with more passengers, more new routes, and an ambitious £150 million (€200m) five-year investment programme. Gordon Dewar, CEO Edinburgh Airport, outlined the developments to Ross Falconer.
Edinburgh Airport is Scotland’s busiest, with more than 40 airlines serving over 100 destinations and 10 million passengers in 2014. The acquisition by Global Infrastructure Partners in 2012 entered the airport into a new era of competition, and its story since then is one of dynamic growth.
Passenger numbers have continued to rise each month in 2015. After enjoying its busiest ever April, with 10.2% growth to over 900,000 passengers, the airport handled over a million passengers in May. There has been strong performance on both domestic and international routes. Several new services have been launched in the past year, including Madrid with Iberia Express, Malaga with Norwegian, and Copenhagen with SAS.
Edinburgh Airport is clearly seeing the benefits of a growing UK economy, with aviation demand inextricably linked to economic performance. London services have helped drive domestic passenger traffic, with Ryanair flying to London Stansted up to four times per day, and Flybe to London City up to six times per day. A strong performance from BA Cityflyer’s London City service, now operating up to 12 times daily, has also boosted recent passenger figures. “London is still by far our biggest market. It’s performing incredibly well,” Gordon Dewar, CEO Edinburgh Airport, commented. “With two new entrants coming in recently – Flybe to London City and Ryanair to London Stansted – passengers have even more options to travel to the capital city of the UK. To put that in context, on a typical weekday we have 52 flights a day to London, and five different airports you can arrive in, so it’s a great choice for our passengers.”
Gordon Dewar, CEO Edinburgh Airport: “It’s going to be a busy five years, and I don’t see it stopping after that. The latest project is the second immigration hall, which opened on 7 June. That’s the very visible thing that’s happening this year.”
The long-haul route network has also been expanded with the arrival of Etihad in June and the launch of American Airlines’ new service to New York-JFK. Meanwhile, a year after launching services to Doha’s Hamad International Airport, Qatar Airways in May increased to a daily frequency on the route.
Dewar speaks passionately about the opportunities available at Edinburgh, and both he and his team have embraced this new era of competition with a truly tireless approach. It has reaped rewards; while the airport’s core short-haul European market has continued to grow strongly, the development of its long-haul connectivity is perhaps among its most impressive achievements. In the three years under new ownership, it has grown from one long-haul route – United Airlines to New York-Newark – to seven. “And we’re not finished yet,” Dewar asserted. Securing Etihad services just a year after Qatar Airways’ arrival is, he said, testament to his team demonstrating to both airlines that the market is so strong there is room for them each to operate and grow at Edinburgh.
New immigration hall open
New to the F&B offer is Starbucks Evenings. The new Starbucks store opened landside in April, with the Starbucks Evenings offer of hot and cold sharing plates with premium wines and beers, available from 16:00 daily.
The airport’s proactive approach to new route development is mirrored by its commitment to investing in world-class infrastructure. Building on its impressive growth, the airport is undertaking an ambitious £150 million (€200m) five-year development programme. Key elements of this include additional retail in the landside terminal and departure lounge, and improved check-in and immigration facilities.
“It’s going to be a busy five years, and I don’t see it stopping after that,” Dewar enthused. “The latest project is the second immigration hall, which opened on 7 June. That’s the very visible thing that’s happening this year.”
This new £50 million (€70m) investment programme, extending the immigration and baggage reclaim facilities, triples capacity for bigger long-haul aircraft. Long-haul traffic was up almost 90% in 2014, thanks to new routes from Qatar Airways, United Airlines and US Airways, and increased services from Turkish Airlines.
A significant amount of preparatory work is, meanwhile, underway on the next big project, which will kick-off over the winter and will see the security area enhanced. “We also need to prepare for a major baggage upgrade in the next two or three years,” Dewar added.
Alongside all of this, 1,000 additional car parking spaces are being introduced this summer, and another 1,000 will be delivered next year. “We have a broad range of projects that are keeping us ahead of the demand curve, and you have to move pretty quickly to do so when you’re growing at about 10%,” Dewar explained.
The plans for additional retail reflect the importance of commercial revenues, which are growing as a proportion of the airport’s overall revenues. The main aim is to provide passengers with more choice. In the coming year, the watches & jewellery category will be introduced for the first time at Edinburgh Airport, while the fashion offer is to be significantly expanded. “We’re also going to keep delivering great food & beverage, and keep aligning the products we offer with the desires of our passengers,” Dewar stated.
New to the F&B offer is Starbucks Evenings. The new Starbucks store opened landside in April, with the Starbucks Evenings offer of hot and cold sharing plates with premium wines and beers, available from 16:00 daily. It is only the second Starbucks Evenings store in the UK. “We are now genuinely a 24/7 airport, so we should have a 24/7 food & beverage offer. Putting it landside makes great sense, because we have people meeting and greeting, taxi operators, and staff coming on and off shift,” Dewar explained. “We wanted to make sure that, no matter what time you’re at the airport, you can have a cup of coffee. You can even have a glass of wine now, and sit and have a bite to eat. I think that just brings home that we are continuing to expand, and aspiring to offer everything our passengers desire.”
Phase 5 Technology provides bag drop innovation
In partnership with Phase 5 Technology, Edinburgh Airport has introduced
an innovative multi-airline bag drop facility.
In conversation, it is clear that Dewar has a passion for delivering the best possible passenger experience. This is perhaps most visible in the check-in process. In partnership with Phase 5 Technology, the airport has introduced a multi-airline bag drop facility. The 10 self-service kiosks allow passengers to weigh their baggage and print their own bag tag. It is just one example of Edinburgh Airport’s desire to empower the passenger and put them in control of their journey.
Lawrence Eke, Managing Director, Phase 5 Technology, explained that the company spent five years making its self-service kiosks as easy to use as possible. The process has as few as three steps – weigh, scan, and tag. A large 18-inch screen guides the passenger through the process using large text and animations. The text automatically changes to the preferred language of the passenger using the information in their booking; 31 languages are currently available. “There are no complex multiple-choice questions, and at Edinburgh passengers aren’t required to touch the screen,” Eke commented. “Most passengers complete the process in 30 seconds, with some completing it in under 20 seconds. Our fastest-ever transition was recorded at Edinburgh Airport by a Ryanair passenger completing the process in just 12 seconds!”
Edinburgh Airport was the first in the UK to use web-based software to operate a fully common, shared bag drop facility for passengers. The multi-airline SONIC Bag Drops successfully process thousands of passengers, bags and payments on a daily basis. The common-use area supports three airlines, accessing three different systems, and operated by two different ground handlers. “We believe this is the first multi-airline, multi-handler, multi-DCS, self-service bag drop operation in Europe, and perhaps the world,” Eke noted.
SONIC Bag Drops enable the airport to increase efficiency by making better use of the terminal’s real estate. This is achieved through several features, most significantly self-service and common-use. Self-service allows all units to be available all of the time, and the SONIC Bag Drop kiosks are only 30cm wide, meaning they are space-efficient.
“Common-use is a very important factor, and has always been at the heart of our solutions. People flying with easyJet, Flybe, and Ryanair from Edinburgh Airport enjoy a radically improved passenger experience, as they don’t have to queue to drop a bag,” Eke added.
The airport also embraced wearable technology towards the end of 2014, when members of its customer service team trialled Google Glass. While ultimately deciding the technology wasn’t quite for them, it does demonstrate the airport’s propensity to innovate and think outside the box in terms of interacting with passengers, and enhancing their airport experience.
“We’ll try every avenue we can to take queues out, improve the customer offer where we can, improve choice, and improve the efficiency of the airport as a whole,” Dewar explained.
Edinburgh Airport’s major investment programme highlights its commitment to competing energetically on the international stage, and is ensuring its facilities reflect the continuing growth in passenger numbers. The developments pave the way for the anticipated increase in international connectivity, with new routes, increased tourism, more trade and more jobs for people in Edinburgh and beyond.
