Edinburgh Airport
Facts on EDI
Edinburgh Airport began life as Turnhouse Aerodrome in 1916, the northernmost British air defence base of World War I, flown from by the Royal Flying Corps. It became RAF Turnhouse in 1918 and the RAF only finally left the site in the 1990s.
Source: Wikipedia
No. 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron was formed at Turnhouse on 14 October 1925. On 16 October 1939 its Spitfires shot a Junkers Ju 88 down into the Firth of Forth — the first enemy aircraft brought down over Great Britain since 1918.
Source: Wikipedia
The airfield opened to commercial traffic on 19 May 1947. The first scheduled flight was a British European Airways 18-seat Douglas C-47 running from London Northolt up to Shetland, calling at Edinburgh and Aberdeen on the way.
Source: Wikipedia
When the British Airports Authority took over on 1 April 1971, the old terminal was running at about eight times its design capacity on 681,000 passengers a year. A replacement designed by Sir Robert Matthew was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 27 May 1977.
Source: Wikipedia
Rebuilding the airport in the 1970s meant rerouting a river: the redevelopment that began in June 1973 included a diversion of the River Almond, which runs past the site on its way to the Firth of Forth.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport sits in Ingliston, whose name means either the settlement of the Inglis family or simply "English town". Its neighbour is the Royal Highland Showground, which from 1965 to 1994 also hosted the Ingliston motor racing circuit.
Source: Wikipedia
Edinburgh runs everything off a single asphalt runway, 06/24, 2,558 metres long at an elevation of 112 ft. The old crosswind runway 12/30 was formally withdrawn from use on 29 March 2018 to make room for expansion.
Source: Wikipedia
For years Edinburgh could not fly the Atlantic at all: under the Bermuda II agreement, Glasgow-Prestwick was Scotland's only designated gateway to the United States. Direct European services began with Amsterdam in 1975.
Source: Wikipedia
Edinburgh had no rail connection of any kind until the Edinburgh Trams opened in May 2014. There is still no station at the airport itself; passengers change onto the tram at Edinburgh Gateway or Edinburgh Park.
Source: Wikipedia
In 2025 Edinburgh handled 16,970,685 passengers on 120,927 aircraft movements, keeping it the busiest airport in Scotland and the sixth busiest in the United Kingdom. Around 35 airlines serve over 152 international destinations from it.
Source: Wikipedia