Edinburgh airport history
Edinburgh Airport started life in 1915 as an air base called Turnhouse Aerodrome, named after the part of Edinburgh it is located in. After the establishment of the Royal Air Force in the UK, the airfield was renamed to RAF Turnhouse and remained the property of the Ministry of Defence.
In 1939 the grass strip runway was paved to construct what is now the secondary runway, runway 12/30. The runway was originally 3,900 feet long, however in 1952 it was extended to 6,000 feet to allow the Royal Auxiliary Airforce to operate their newly acquired Vampire FB5's from the airfield.
The first commercial flight took off from Edinburgh airport in 1947, operated by British European Airways (which would later merge with BOAC to form British Airways). The flight was a shuttle flight linking Edinburgh to London, a route that is now the busiest in the UK.
In 1960 the Ministry of Defence transferred ownership of the airfield to the Ministry of Aviation, who became the British Airports Authority (BAA) in 1971. Also in 1971 the second runway was built at the airport. This 8,400 feet runway was aligned with the prevailing wind at 06/24.
A new terminal was constructed alongside the new runway, forming the base for what is the airports current terminal. The old hangers that had been used during the airfield's military years were converted for use as cargo storage, and the area was transformed into the current cargo centre.
BAA was privatised in 1987 and the airport left public ownership. In recent years the airport has experienced a big increase in direct air links and in 2004 eight million passengers passed through the airport. Many new routes have been added including Scotland's first direct scheduled flights to the USA, but the budget airlines, including easyJet, FlyBE, bmibaby, Ryanair, Germanwings, Hapag Lloyd Express and flyglobespan, have had the biggest impact. Together, they have a sizable presence at Edinburgh Airport, complimenting routes flown by scheduled airlines including Aer Lingus, Air France, bmi British Midland, British Airways, Lufthansa and SAS.
All the London airports have frequent departures from Edinburgh airport, as do all the major airports in England and a growing number of regional airports. European airlines fly have regular flights to the major European cities and air cargo services from UPS, DHL, TNT, Channel Express and others add to the busy airport timetable. Current growth in passenger numbers is 7.5% and Edinburgh airport is Scotland's busiest runway in terms of air transport movements.
A new landmark, award winning air traffic control tower was opened in 2006, a new 2000 space sort term multi-story airport car park adjacent to the terminal ws completed in late 2004 and work to extend the taxiways for more efficient use of the runway was finished in 2005. Edinburgh airport's owner and operator BAA has earmarked an investment of around £200 million over the next decade to keep up with demand for flights to and from Edinburgh.
