Edinburgh Airport wants Middle East flights and more routes to US
02.11.10
Edinburgh Airport is targeting a link to the Middle East to offer a one-stop link to Asia and Australia next year, along with additional direct flights to North America, the Scotsman reports. The news came as the airport launched winter flights schedule, which features an increase of nearly 7 percent in available seats, and nine new routes compared with a year ago.
The airport expects to shortly become the UK's fifth busiest airport, after the three big London airports and Manchester, pushing Luton into sixth place. It has therefore abandoned its ‘Scotland's airport of choice’ slogan to ‘set the bar higher’, according to managing director Kevin Brown, by seeking more direct long-haul flights both east and west. To reflect this, the new slogan is ‘Inspiring Journeys’.
Mr Brown told the newspaper that flights between Edinburgh and a Middle Eastern hub would help the airport cash in on passengers currently flying long haul via Heathrow or European hubs such as Amsterdam. It would also offer the prospect of Scottish passengers being able to reach far-flung destinations, such as Australia in two hops, rather than the current three for those connecting via European hubs.
He hopes to emulate the success of Emirates' daily flights to Dubai from Glasgow, which led the airline to increase the size of the aircraft on the route within two years of its launch in 2004. Other contenders for the Edinburgh link include Etihad Airways to Abu Dhabi, Gulf Air to Bahrain or Muscat, and Qatar Airways to Doha.
Edinburgh has expanded its route network by 25 to 140 this year but has just one long-haul link, to New York. By contrast, Glasgow boasts several transatlantic routes and last week announced Scotland's first direct flight to India. Mr Brown said: ‘We want more connections to hubs, both east and west. Passengers want direct connections from their doorstep, and leading airports in Europe provide them. We are already one of the best-connected airports in the UK. We want to provide even more choice to Europe and further afield.’
To book edinburgh airport hotel or edinburgh airport car park at the lowest price, click on these links to two great Edinburgh airport parking and Edinburgh airport hotel price comparison pages.
