New Edinburgh Airport owner pledges to tackle passengers' number one gripe
The new French owner of Edinburgh Airport has pledged to focus on its security queues as its acquisition of a £1.27 billion majority stake in Scotland’s busiest terminal was confirmed.
VINCI’s vow came as seller Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which retains a 49.99 per cent stake, said the airport’s new security lanes would be the “best in the world”.
The new French owner of Edinburgh Airport has pledged to focus on its security queues as its acquisition of a £1.27 billion majority stake in Scotland’s busiest terminal was confirmed.
VINCI’s vow came as seller Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which retains a 49.99 per cent stake, said the airport’s new security lanes would be the “best in the world”.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm Alistair Dalton, the Scotsman's Transport Correspondent. I'm at Edinburgh Airport where
00:11Vanshi, the French airports group, has just completed a 50% acquisition of the operation.
00:18However, passengers shouldn't expect any immediate changes. Vanshi say it's very much a case
00:25of continuity and supporting and fine-tuning the airport's existing expansion plans. Gordon
00:31Dewar, Edinburgh Airport's Chief Executive, said the next stages in its development were
00:37to create more gates for departing aircraft, improvements to security and then a resurfacing
00:46of the runway late in 2025.
00:50So we have to build a bit of everything really. The terminal needs more gate space, we need
00:56some more stands, we need to enhance our security which is an ongoing project. We've got major
01:02refurbishment of the runway coming up in the next two years. But this is a story that we've
01:07been telling for the last 12 years. What we're hoping is that the Vanshi experience will
01:11allow us to build better, more efficiently, using new innovative techniques, understanding
01:17how design has progressed. As a sole airport, you get one chance at doing a major terminal
01:24expansion every five or six years. Whereas now we can look back at the experience of
01:28probably three or four terminal expansions every year happening across the Vanshi network.
01:32So that's where we think the value is. So as I say, I think we have the opportunity
01:37to grow faster and better and more efficiently and really put the customer service and the
01:43sustainability at the heart of that. Learning from our cousins across Edinburgh.
01:48We heard from the president of Vanshi Airports who talked about how they plan to support
01:54the airport through its latest development.
01:58Tourism value for Edinburgh is in and out. Out because Scottish like to travel. It's
02:04a peripheral zone of the world so you like to travel anywhere and clearly Edinburgh is
02:10the Scotland's airport and coming in because with the festival, with the whisky tourism,
02:16with what you have to deliver, it's a very balanced airport. We believe in the future
02:21growth. We don't invest just for the past, we invest for the future and it's a continuity
02:25and enhancement of potential. Continuity because the master plan, the ideas of the airports
02:30we invested in are fantastic for us but we believe there is even a stronger potential
02:36of growth for the future and we are happy to help. It's more a support and enhancement.
02:42We have a dedicated team at the HQ more to help and to refresh some ideas and in agreement
02:49with Michael, we'll particularly in the next year expand to cope with the growth because
02:54we think there is a potential growth to deliver. We'll be over 2019 before COVID this year
03:00and now the best is to understand the airport is very good first. It's a very good airport,
03:06very well managed. Then, try to figure out some details. In innovation, we think in the
03:11future artificial intelligence will bring some idea about biometry, about the way to
03:16detect what is in the luggage, artificially. So this type of thing will work. When you
03:21have a network, we test and try. One of our priority top all of us, long haul direct links.
03:28We don't want people to go for hubs. We don't manage so many hubs on our side. We think
03:33it's better to go point to point as we are in London and Gatwick and so the more direct
03:38routes we bring will be a common added value. So China is clearly a good target.