Scotland flights ambitions of Edinburgh Airport chief

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

Asked in an exclusive interview with The Herald about new routes, taking into account how demand from travellers was developing, Gordon 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".
He highlighted Edinburgh Airport's success in winning direct flights between the Scottish capital and Beijing operated by Hainan Airlines, which revealed recently it was extending this service to year-round.
Mr Dewar said: 'Hainan were one of many Chinese airlines we talked to. They were the one that responded first to really compelling data about why Chinese airlines will be very successful flying to Edinburgh."
He flagged 'tens of thousands of Scots travelling between Scotland and Beijing…having to do it through other destinations' previously.
Read more
It was announced in late April that Hainan's direct service to Beijing would be increasing from seasonal to year-round.
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.
Mr Dewar said: 'We got a new Montreal route that was probably at least in part motivated by the reduction in traffic between Canada and America. We would have got Montreal at some point. I am not sure we would have got it this year if it hadn't been for that disruption.'
Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar (Image: Edinburgh Airport)
He highlighted his confidence that Edinburgh Airport will 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 Mr Dewar took up the chief executive post at the airport, the passenger total was 9.19 million.
Asked about the airport's capacity, in the context of its rapid increase in passenger numbers in recent years and the further expansion of flights projected, Mr Dewar replied: 'We have to build quickly…but we are not at the stage of being full yet. That has been true since 2012 where, apart from Covid, we have been in a constant build programme to keep up with that demand.
'We have got the space. We have got the funding. It is just a matter of getting it all lined up and making sure it lands the day before it is needed.'
Mr Dewar highlighted the scale of the growth in the long-haul segment at Edinburgh Airport, and the general reduction in domestic traffic as things he did not foresee when he became chief executive.
He underlined the extent to which overall passenger growth at Edinburgh Airport had been driven by international flights.
Mr Dewar said: 'The ratio of international [traffic] we have is higher. All the growth is international. We have increased our proportion of inbound [passenger traffic]. The American routes – they tend to be stronger inbound demand.'
Asked if he would in 2012 have envisaged passenger numbers being where they are now, Mr Dewar replied: 'We had a five-year plan [in 2012] which we slightly bettered.'
'Thirteen years later, the mix is slightly different from what I expected. No one would have seen the reduction in domestic and during Covid.'
He declared that 'no one would have seen the growth in long haul'.