Edinburgh Airport History

Edinburgh airport was originally called Turnhouse aerodrome and used by the Royal Flying Corps from 1915, later becoming RAF Turnhouse. The grass airfield was used in both the First and Second World War with aircraft assembled on site from crates brought up by rail. The military occupied the site until 1960 when it was handed over to the Ministry of Aviation.

In 1971 the British Airports Authority, which we now know today as BAA plc took over the running of the airport for commercial activities and was officially opened by the Queen in 1977. In terms of other airports in the UK Edinburgh airport was developed much later.

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh coupled with a £100m development programme to modernise the terminal, cargo facilities and runway has produced a surge in business. Edinburgh currently serves 6.3m passengers compared to Glasgow’s 8 million, however whilst Glasgow airport traffic remains static Edinburgh is seeing year on year growth of over 11% and is expected to surpass Glasgow

Number of terminals : 1
Number of passengers a year : 6.3 million
Number of airlines : 30
Number of destinations : 55
Number of runways : 2