A Brief History

When World War II ended RAF Turnhouse as the airport was known since 1918 still remained under military control, but by the late 1940s commercial services were launched. In 1947, BEA started a service between Edinburgh and London.

In 1956 a new passenger terminal was built and five years later it was extended. In 1971 BAA took over control of the airport and immediately started to expand the airport by building a new runway and terminal.

This runway, completed in 1977 is 8399ft in length, and was able to take all modern airliners. A new terminal was built alongside it to cater for the additional traffic. The old terminal and hangars were converted into a cargo center.

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 sites.

Traffic

Owing to its east central location Edinburgh Airport is easily reached by the M9 and M90 motorways and is close to the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway lines

An extension to the terminal opened in September 2006. This has added six gates on a new pier to the east of the current building. In the long term BAA projects that by 2030 Edinburgh Airport will be Scotland's busiest, handling 26 million passengers per year.