Edinburgh Airport reveals when its runway will close for £30m resurfacing
Long-planned first major upgrade since 2008 follows series of unscheduled shutdowns for emergency repairs
The runway at Scotland’s busiest airport will close overnight for five months from November for long-planned resurfacing, it was announced on Wednesday.
Confirmation of the start of the £30 million work follows The Scotsman revealing last year that nearly 100 flights had been disrupted during 16 unplanned closures of the worn-out runway over the course of a year for emergency repairs lasting a total of nearly nine hours.
The airport said its runway would shut from 11.45pm to 5.45am between Sundays and Thursdays from November 2 until the end of March, apart from between December 18 and January 4.
It is the first full resurfacing for 17 years and will involve 150 workers using 100 vehicles, working on a 600m-long stretch of the 2.5km (1.5 mile) runway each night.
The 1,200 runway lights will be replaced with brighter and more energy efficient LED bulbs, along with new weather sensors.
The closures could mean late-running flights being cancelled or diverted, as The Scotsman reported last year.
Gordon Robertson, the airport’s chief communications and sustainability officer, has said that airlines “know there’s no leeway, so if they are very late, they’re either not flying or going to Glasgow.”
Interim chief operating officer Peter Barnes said: “The runway is our number one asset and is a critical piece of infrastructure to many across Scotland.
“This investment will completely resurface the runway, install new technology, and future proof the asset ahead of planned continued growth.
“It’s a significant investment in the airport infrastructure and is part of a record capital plan.
“The project has been meticulously planned by our team and we’ve proactively engaged with our campus partners and airlines to minimise disruption as much as possible.”
Chief executive Gordon Dewar has described the emergency repairs as following a “fairly typical pattern of a 15-year-old asset coming to the end of its life”.
The airport, which handled a record 15.8 million passengers last year - nearly twice as many as Glasgow - expects that to be topped in 2025 thanks to additional flights, including to Boston and Philadelphia.
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