New look runway opens at Edinburgh airport
[November 21st 2008]
Scotland’s busiest airport, Edinburgh, has completed the resurfacing of its main runway ahead of schedule.
The runway handles 115,000 flights a year and work to resurface it started in April this year. The scheduled completion date was 31st November but the £16 million project has been completed early and on budget.
Work was carried out at night with flights using Edinburgh airport’s secondary runway. Over 1,000 runway lights were replaced and 25,000 tonnes of asphalt laid, renewing the life of the runway for another 15 years.
"This has been a complex and challenging project, involving a number of organisations and many hundreds of airport workers. I am delighted that, working together, we have completed the resurfacing work on time, and on budget," comments Glasgow airport MD, Gordon Dewar.
Because of the switch to the secondary runway night time flights operated over areas not normally subject to aircraft noise, including parts of South and West Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian.
"We are grateful to residents in those areas for their patience and goodwill over the past eight months. We have made every effort to minimise disruption to local communities by completing this project as quickly as possible and keeping affected people informed about the progress of the works," explains Dewar.
"The runway resurfacing project is key to BAA Edinburgh's future development plans. With this major investment now complete, Edinburgh Airport can look forward to a great future as one of Europe's leading regional airports,” continues Dewar.
Work is now about to get underway on a £40 million project to extend the departure lounge at Edinburgh airport. BAA Edinburgh plans to invest £250 million in the airport over the next decade.
"The launch earlier this month of a new Ryanair base at Edinburgh, the continuing growth of international traffic, and the forthcoming investment in our departure lounge, augers well for the future. Despite these challenging times, I am confident that Edinburgh Airport will continue to make a significant, and growing, contribution to the economic success of Edinburgh and the east of Scotland," Dewar concludes.
Written by: Nick Purdom