History of Edinburgh Airport

In the beginning...
Turnhouse Aerodrome was the most northerly British air defence base in World War I used by the Royal Flying Corps. The small base opened in 1915 and it was used to house the 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron from 1925, which consisted of DH 9As, Westland Wapitis, Hawker Harts, and Hawker Hind light bombers. All the aircraft used a grass air strip.

In 1918 the Royal Air Force was formed and the airfield was named RAF Turnhouse and ownership transferred to the Ministry of Defence.

When the Second World War broke out, fighter command took control over the airfield and a runway of 3,900ft was paved to handle the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire.

Post war
When the war ended the airfield still remained under military control, but by the late 1940s the first commercial services were launched. In 1947, British European Airways started a service between Edinburgh and London using Vickers Vikings followed by the Viscount and Vanguard series.

In 1952 the runway was extended to 6000ft to handle the Vampire FB5s; and an aircraft carrier Catcher Net (never used) to protect traffic on the adjacent A9 road. In 1956 a new passenger terminal was built to offer improved commercial service and five years later it was extended. The Ministry of Defence transferred ownership to the Ministry of Aviation in 1960 to offer improved commercial service to the airport. Flying was temporarily diverted to East Fortune, which had its runway extended to accommodate the airliners of the period.

BAA take over
In 1971 the state owned British Airports Authority (now called BAA, a subsidiary of Spain based Ferrovial) took over the airport and immediately started expansion work.

Although the original main runway 13/31 (which is now 12/30) served the airport well, its alignment had the disadvantage of suffering from severe crosswinds and the other two minor runways were very short and could not be readily extended, so movements were transferred to a new runway (07/25 which has since become 06/24) in an addition completely outside the original airfield boundary. This runway, completed in 1977 is 8399ft in length, and was able to take all modern airliners including Concorde. A new terminal was built alongside the runway to cater for the additional traffic. The old terminal and hangars were converted into a cargo centre.

The only international services from Edinburgh during the 1980s were to Amsterdam and Dublin, but in the following years links were opened to destinations in France and Germany. By the end of the decade BAA had been privatised and funds were used to extend the current terminal building and create parking aprons.
 

The Gate 19 area of the new South East Pier	A typical ramp scene at Edinburgh Airport

The modern era
In 2005, a new 57 metre tall air traffic control tower was completed at a cost of £10m.

An extension to the terminal opened in September 2006 called the "South East Pier". This extension initially added six gates (14 - 19) on a new pier to the South-East of the earlier building next to departure gates 12 & 12b. A further 4 gates (20 - 23) were added to the South East Pier at the end of 2008 as well as a very controversial Gate 13 between the earlier terminal building (Gate 12b) and the newer gates in the South East Pier.

Construction on a £40 million departure lounge extension project which will see the current lounge double in size as well as a new security search area and a greater choice bars, restaurants and shops is currently ongoing. The first phase opened for business on November 18 2009.

View a video animation of the new departure lounge here.

The future
BAA projects that by 2020 Edinburgh Airport will be handling 20 million passengers per annum, rising to 26 million by 2030.