Edinburgh Airport chief on flights and big Glasgow question

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

As part of The Herald's major Edinburgh series, I travelled through again to speak to Mr Dewar.
The front-page splash I wrote focused on Mr Dewar's assessment of the growing and very large economic contribution of the airport, and covered many other things.
Mr Dewar estimated Edinburgh Airport's annual contribution to the economy will have risen to at least £1.6 billion, as he anticipated further growth at the airport and another record year for passenger numbers.
He also highlighted the importance of the jobs provided by the airport and other employers on the 'campus', in the exclusive interview.
Mr Dewar observed this employment totals nearly 8,000. This includes around 1,000 people employed directly by the airport. He declared: 'It is obvious that airports are profoundly important for local economies, particularly island economies such as ours. I am a geographer by background. I am a transport operator my whole career.'
Mr Dewar also underlined the attractiveness of Edinburgh as a destination for overseas visitors. And he flagged the lift which Edinburgh Airport provided to the tourism sector, and vice-versa.
He said of Edinburgh: 'It is an iconic destination, in its own right: the castle, whether you are into Harry Potter, whether you have Scottish connections or not, it is one of those iconic cities, the Festival.
'Landing in Scotland and seeing the rest of the country is seen as very accessible.'
Mr Dewar highlighted his confidence that Edinburgh Airport would handle more than 16 million passengers this year, setting another all-time high to exceed the record of 15.78 million it achieved in 2024.
In 2012, the year in which he returned to the airport to take up his current role, the passenger total was 9.19 million.
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Mr Dewar highlighted the strong growth enjoyed by Edinburgh Airport.
He said: 'We were already one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe pre-Covid. We were then one of the fastest-recovering airports in Europe post-Covid. There are many airports haven't got back to 2019 levels yet. We are way ahead of that.'
In terms of growth among European airports, Mr Dewar added: 'We might not always be best all the time but we are going to be in the upper quartile for the foreseeable future…within Europe.'
Edinburgh Airport was estimated in a 2020 report by Biggar Economics to have contributed £1.4bn to the economy on the gross value added (GVA) measure in 2019 – a year in which it exceeded 14 million passengers.
Noting the economic contribution amounted to around £100 per passenger, Mr Dewar said of the current position: 'We should be up to £1.6bn of GVA or a bit higher, if my rule of thumb works.'
He said: 'You can sort of do the maths. That ratio won't have changed much. The reason I say that with much confidence [is] the only thing that would change that would be if there was a substantial mix change.'
Highlighting improvements in the mix of passenger traffic from an economic contribution perspective, Mr Dewar added: 'The ratio of international [traffic] we have is higher. All the growth is international. We have increased our proportion of inbound. The American routes – they tend to be stronger inbound demand than other…routes.'
He flagged the various components of the economic contribution of Edinburgh Airport – which has been majority-owned by Paris-based VINCI Airports since last year – as well as the fact that the benefits flow well beyond the city.
Mr Dewar said: 'Obviously, there is a direct spend [with] tourism, a direct economic contribution, essentially an export market.'
He also highlighted people using the airport to travel to universities and the importance of connectivity for 'people doing business and selling goods or selling services'.
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While observing the economic contribution was 'focused in the central belt and around Edinburgh', he highlighted the fact that the benefits of tourism through the airport were felt 'on Skye, in the Outer Hebrides, in the Borders and so on'.
Flagging the airport's provision of some services not available elsewhere, he said: 'We are called Edinburgh Airport but we are Scotland's airport.'
In a column for The Herald on June 13, I reflected on what Mr Dewar had said during the interview about Glasgow Airport and its investment and expansion plans.
AviAlliance, the wholly owned airports platform of one of Canada's largest pension investors and the new owner of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports owner AGS Airports, earlier this year brought in Kam Jandu as AGS chief executive.
Mr Jandu in late April unveiled plans for major investment at Glasgow Airport, including a 'comprehensive transformation' of the main terminal building. He described the prospects of winning direct flights to North America as 'good' and highlighted talks with US airlines.
And Mr Jandu, who noted when I spoke to him in late April that he knew Mr Dewar, underlined his plans to build passenger numbers at Glasgow Airport. These include attracting people living within this airport's natural catchment area to fly from Glasgow rather than Edinburgh.
My column observed that Mr Dewar, when I asked him if he had any view on Glasgow Airport's major investment and its talk about regaining traffic from its natural catchment area, seemed a little less combative in tone about the degree of competition with his rival than when I spoke with him in February.
He said in the most recent interview: 'I guess they are articulating their objectives and what they would like to do, and good luck with it.
'I am not overly perturbed by their announcement. I can understand why they have these aspirations.'
That said, he did add: 'At the end of the day, we don't talk about these things. We just do them.'
Mr Dewar, when I spoke with him, highlighted China and India, and other Asian markets, as key targets for new routes. Asked about new routes, taking into account how demand from travellers was developing, Mr Dewar said: 'We think the Chinese and the Indian markets and other Asian markets are clearly things we should be working on, and we are.'
While he said he was 'not going to speculate' on what would happen on this front, Mr Dewar added: 'The growth there demonstrates the opportunity.
'We just work quietly and we celebrate them [new routes] when they arrive.'
He highlighted a major uplift in travel to destinations to which new, direct long-haul routes were launched.
Mr Dewar said 'longer-haul new destinations add 30% to 50% to travel', noting direct routes meant journeys were 'less time-consuming".
Edinburgh Airport has also enjoyed significant success in recent times in winning and building direct flights to North America, serving various key destinations in the US and Canada.
It was announced in the spring that United Airlines is extending its service between Edinburgh and Washington DC to what the airport characterised as 'almost year-round'.
In March, it was confirmed that Air Canada would launch a new direct route between Edinburgh and Montreal this summer.
As I observed – in the column in which I reflected on Mr Dewar's views on Glasgow Airport – 'the momentum of Edinburgh Airport seems difficult to overstate'.
This article was first published in The Herald's Business HQ Monthly supplement