Qualla: Edinburgh Airport

Edinburgh Airport: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0 de. In 1916, the Royal Flying Corps cleared a field at Turnhouse on the western edge of Edinburgh and started flying biplanes from it. It was the northernmost British air defence base of the First World War, charged with watching the Forth estuary for Zeppelins. A century later, the grass strip the RFC laid down has grown into Scotland's busiest airport, handling over 15 million passengers and 109,000 aircraft movements in a single year. Almost nothing remains of the original aerodrome except the runway alignment and the name. The control tower, the terminal, the tram station, the cargo apron, all of it was built on top of a story that began with a war.

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Edinburgh Airport: Turnhouse

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit xlibber, CC BY 2.0. Turnhouse Aerodrome opened in 1916 with a handful of Royal Flying Corps biplanes assigned to defend Scotland's industrial belt from Zeppelin raids. In 1918, when the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged to form the Royal Air Force, the base became RAF Tu...

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Image: xlibber | CC BY 2.0

Edinburgh Airport: From Charter to Continental

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. International scheduled service began in 1962 with a direct route to Dublin. For most of the next decade, international flights from Edinburgh were chartered or private. The first true scheduled route to continental Europe was Amsterdam in 1975, followed during the 1980s by Paris...

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Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Edinburgh Airport: Growth and the Tram

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Privatisation of BAA in 1987 marked the beginning of Edinburgh Airport's modern expansion. Passenger numbers grew from 681,000 in 1971 to 1.8 million in 1987 to 11.1 million by 2015. In May 2014, Edinburgh Trams opened, giving the airport its first rail-style connection to the ci...

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Image: M J Richardson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Edinburgh Airport: Approaches and Memory

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Wollstadt from Sarasota, Florida, CC BY-SA 2.0. Edinburgh Airport's single active runway, 06/24, is 8,400 feet long and aligned almost exactly east-northeast to west-southwest. Aircraft on approach pass over the Pentland Hills to the south or the Firth of Forth to the north. Loganair flight 670A, a Royal Mail Shorts 360 with t...

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Image: Roger Wollstadt from Sarasota, Florida | CC BY-SA 2.0