Edinburgh Airport runway closure - potential impact revealed

The runway will be closed overnight for at least eight weeks over winter 2025-26 for the “rehabilitation project” to “re-life” it.

The news comes three months after The Scotsman revealed that nearly 100 flights had been disrupted over the last year by emergency repairs to the runway surface.

Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar told its consultative committee: “Next year is going to be unusual as we are going to have the runway resurfacing work for eight weeks - potentially longer.”

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He was asked by committee chair Robert Carr: “If you’re closing your runway, what’s going to happen to flights - how will that be managed?”

Mr Dewar said: “It remains to be seen, but we are already advising airlines that this is coming, so they have got a lot of time to prepare.

“They will just have to manage, and there is a risk that we do have a lower overall demand.

“There is a risk we could lose some destinations or see significant reductions, but all we can do is give people lots of notice.”

Gordon Robertson, the airport’s chief communications and sustainability officer, added: “They know there’s no leeway, so if they are very late, they’re either not flying or going to Glasgow.”

Mr Dewar had told the committee in August that the runway repairs to date had followed a “fairly typical pattern of a 15-year-old asset coming to the end of its life”.

The closure times have yet to be confirmed, but the airport’s last scheduled arrival on Tuesday was an Easyjet service from Tenerife due to arrive at 11.20pm, five minutes after a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, with a Ryanair flight from Lanzarote and a KLM flight from Amsterdam due at 11.10pm.

An airport spokesperson said: “It will be in the early hours of the morning where we are at our quietest or when no flights scheduled.” 

News of the potential impact of the project came as Mr Dewar told the committee the airport was “very much back in growth trajectory” and will handle a record of more than 15 million passengers this year.

The total was up 8.5 per cent between July and September compared to last year.

However, total passengers on UK flights remained “significantly behind” before the pandemic, although growth in 2024 was “modestly ahead” of last year’s.

Mr Dewar said the lag was partly because the frequency and capacity of flights on some routes previously operated by Flybe, which collapsed in 2020 and again last year, had not been fully restored by other airlines - and Manchester was a notable gap in Edinburgh’s network.

Mr Dewar said international traffic was “significantly into growth”, with Emirates resuming flights to its Dubai hub on Monday and American due to resume Philadelphia flights from next May.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Passenger Agents Association, which represents the travel trade, said: “We acknowledge the timing of this project has been carefully considered to avoid peak travel periods, thereby minimising the impact on travellers.

“While we anticipate mainstream destinations will remain largely unaffected, we recognise that some late landings might experience disruptions.”