Record year at for-sale Edinburgh Airport

More than 13 million passengers used Edinburgh Airport in 2017, making it the busiest ever year for a Scottish airport.

Passenger numbers were up 8.6% or 1,065,987 passengers on 2016 to a total of 13,432,485.

Owner Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has explored a possible sale of Edinburgh Airport — with investment bankers saying it could fetch up to £2 billion.

A potential sale of Edinburgh Airport was cancelled in 2017 by GIP because Brexit uncertainties would have affected the price tag.

GIP bought Edinburgh Airport for £807 million from BAA more than five years ago.

Domestic passenger numbers at Edinburgh Airport in 2017 actually fell 1.5% to 5,287,467, while international passengers rose 13.8% to 8,145,018.

Edinburgh Airport CEO Gordon Dewar said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Edinburgh Airport – to welcome more than 13 million passengers is a real triumph and one that we are delighted by.

“That success is of course down to the vast choice of destinations we offer, our partner airlines and businesses, but it’s also down to the dedicated and expert staff who work across our campus to ensure the airport operates smoothly and successfully.

“We thank all of them for the sometimes unseen work that they do that is so crucial to our operations.

“We’ve already announced new and extended routes this year and construction continues on our £80 million extension project so we are preparing for further growth.

“We know we play a crucial role in the economy and we want to use Edinburgh and Scotland’s global appeal and standing to bring further benefits – but that sense of adventure that an airport offers is also important to us.

“We are excited about what 2018 will bring and we hope to deliver more choices and destinations for our passengers throughout the year.”

Meanwhile, Glasgow Airport also recorded its busiest year ever in 2017 as more than 9.9 million passengers travelled through its doors, an annual increase of 5.8%.

Glasgow Airport is owned by AGS Airports, a partnership between Spanish company Ferrovial and Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) which was established in 2014 to invest in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports.

“The airport significantly added to its growing destination list with the launch of a number of new Ryanair services to European cities including Madrid, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Krakow and Valencia,” said Glasgow Airport.

“Glasgow also continued to strengthen its position as Scotland’s principal long-haul airport with a new direct Delta Air Lines route to New York-JFK, record passenger numbers on the daily double Dubai service and additional flights to Orlando.

“Scotland’s only direct service from Seoul operated by Korean Air also returned in 2017 with an additional 25% capacity.”

Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said: “2017 was a fantastic year for the airport. To carry more than 9.9 million passengers is a huge achievement and testament to the hard work put in by more than 5,000 people across the airport.

“It was also particularly pleasing that we were able to considerably increase our connectivity, particularly across Europe, by securing more than 30 routes and services during the year.

“Over the last 12 months we also made considerable improvements to the airport by investing more than £25 million on a number of successful projects including the resurfacing of the runway, increasing aircraft stand capacity and the opening of our new consolidated car rental centre.

“Phase one of the expansion project to increase our Central Search security area by 20 per cent also got underway in December and should be completed in the first quarter of 2018.

“While Glasgow Airport enters 2018 in a position of strength, the wider aviation industry faces a number of challenges in the year ahead.

“These challenges will be particularly heightened by the Brexit situation, so it’s important we have clarity as early as possible on how the UK’s future relationship with the European Union will work.”