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The Herald Scotland
05-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Edinburgh Airport chief on flights and big Glasgow question
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. Read more 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'. Read more 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
The Herald Scotland
06-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Edinburgh Airport chief reveals £1.6 billion lift and hopes
And Mr Dewar 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.' He also underlined the attractiveness of Edinburgh as a destination for overseas visitors. And he flagged the lift Edinburgh Airport provided to the tourism sector, and vice-versa. 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 took up the top job at the airport, the passenger total was 9.19m. Mr Dewar said: 'We are confident we will exceed 16 million this year. We have a number in mind. We are currently advising our shareholders. 'We will definitely have a record year. I would hope to outperform even the [figure] we have shared with our shareholders. We are ahead of our forecasts in the first four months of the year.' 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 14m 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'. 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 Edinburgh Airport's provision of some services not available elsewhere, he said: 'We are called Edinburgh Airport but we are Scotland's airport.' Read more: Highlighting growth ambitions, Mr Dewar said: 'The only question is how far can we go, how fast can we go. 'We work on a pipeline of 50, 60, 70 routes a year, confident we will get between five and 20 of them. What we see is all the things that are driving the value of Edinburgh, certainly in relative terms.' He added: 'The economy of Edinburgh is doing better than most of the non-London UK.' Mr Dewar also flagged outperformance in tourism and student development. He also highlighted the part that the airport could play in social inclusion. Mr Dewar said: 'How do we tap into communities that have maybe struggled before?' He added that the airport needed that workforce for the future. Asked about social inclusion, he replied: 'The positives are largely driven by the career opportunities at the airport. I don't mean just us. We have a very large campus – people have built a career at the airport.' He highlighted the fact that the airport campus was somewhere people could 'come without a degree…and build a career'. Mr Dewar noted that people could move into senior roles from such a start at the airport campus, highlighting the variety of jobs on offer. He declared: 'We have a really good opportunity to do that.' Mr Dewar said the airport prided itself on the number of opportunities it offers for people joining from school or as graduates from universities, and its provision of internships and apprenticeships. He added: 'They have ended up building a career here.' Noting the many different jobs provided by Edinburgh Airport itself, he said: 'We have everything from car park drivers to security officers to accountants to finance people to analysts. It is an incredibly diverse business.' Mr Dewar noted the Scottish tourism market is 'facing into a new challenge', with cost pressures, adding: 'They need high-value demand.' He highlighted the good job being done by tourism providers and the fact that Scotland was 'still growing that market as a country'. Mr Dewar noted that international tourists generally had to arrive in Scotland by air. He said that, apart from domestic tourists, 'everyone else, [from] Europe, Americans, Asians, is flying', observing: 'They might come here via London.' Highlighting the importance of the airport winning new routes and services, Mr Dewar added: 'The more we can connect and the easier we can make these connections, the better chance Scottish tourism has in attracting people to spend their money.' He observed that, in terms of tourism from America, Scotland has the 'best numbers' it has ever had. Mr Dewar added: 'Not only are they coming in greater numbers but they are staying longer.' Edinburgh Airport has enjoyed significant success in winning direct North American flights in recent times. Mr Dewar highlighted the fact that more direct flights from the US meant Americans might now - instead of travelling through London and spending four or five days of a two-week holiday in Scotland as they did previously - now land in and fly from Scotland and spend the 'whole fortnight' in Scotland. He declared: 'All of these things are good news, tapping into the [American market].' Mr Dewar 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 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.' He observed 'the Indian market is pretty hard to beat at the moment' in terms of the growth of airports.
The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
SNP must tread carefully on energy market reform
While electricity market reform is ultimately a matter reserved to Westminster, the SNP's position will carry weight. There's also a political calculation to be made here. If the proposed changes have unintended consequences for Scotland, the party will not be able to distance itself from the fallout. Zonal pricing, in essence, would divide the UK into geographic zones with electricity prices determined by local supply, demand, and grid constraints. Advocates claim it could mean some of the lowest energy bills in Europe for Scottish households. Prominent voices within the SNP have jumped on this, presenting it as further evidence that Scots are disadvantaged by remaining part of the UK. However, the party must take a much longer-term view that keeps us on the road to net zero and maintains public support for Scotland's clean power ambitions. All policy makers should be focused on reducing energy bills, which have risen to frankly scandalous levels in recent years, chipping away at support for the energy transition in the process. However, zonal pricing is no silver bullet. Even if zonal pricing could reduce bills, it's been suggested it would take at least seven years for the benefits to be felt. Meanwhile, project development costs could increase under a more fragmented system, likely cancelling out any long-term savings for consumers. The future success of the Scottish economy is largely reliant on maximising the opportunities of the energy transition. Our renewables sector has built strong international momentum, but we are competing globally for capital. Investors looking at narrowing project margins can and will go elsewhere if they sense instability. On the same day that SSE announced job cuts, citing 'a range of economic and other factors', Biggar Economics warned in new research that zonal pricing could put £30 billion of investment at risk and threaten 8,000 jobs in onshore wind – precisely the kind of skilled jobs Scotland's young people need. The sector can't afford more instability. Rather than pursuing disruptive reforms, governments should focus on effective steps – like decoupling electricity prices from the cost of gas – which remains the main driver of high bills. This debate shouldn't be framed as a choice between supporting developers or cutting costs for consumers. With the right reforms, both are possible. The SNP should commit to a pragmatic, evidence-led approach to electricity market reform – one that supports investment, delivers value, and strengthens Scotland's long-term economic prospects. It's only with a credible position on big issues like this that the SNP can maintain the trust of voters in Scotland, and their backing to drive us towards a green industrial future. John Cumming is a senior client manager with Charlotte Street Partners Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@
Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Galloway national park ‘would cost jobs by blocking wind farms'
A new national park in Galloway would deprive the region of more than £540 million of economic output and hundreds of renewable energy jobs over the next decade, economists have warned. A report by Biggar Economics on behalf of the renewables sector suggested there would be a reduction in the amount of onshore wind farms in the area, as planning permission would be likely to become much more difficult, hampering efforts to develop new sites and upgrade existing ones. According to the research, Scotland's existing national planning framework states that proposals for wind farms in national parks will not be supported unless any adverse impacts are clearly outweighed by social, environmental and economic benefits. Galloway was selected for a new national park in July last
