00:00I'm Alistair Dalton, the Scotsman's Transport Correspondent. I'm at Edinburgh Airport where
00:11Vanshi, the French airports group, has just completed a 50% acquisition of the operation.
00:18However, passengers shouldn't expect any immediate changes. Vanshi say it's very much a case
00:25of continuity and supporting and fine-tuning the airport's existing expansion plans. Gordon
00:31Dewar, Edinburgh Airport's Chief Executive, said the next stages in its development were
00:37to create more gates for departing aircraft, improvements to security and then a resurfacing
00:46of the runway late in 2025.
00:50So we have to build a bit of everything really. The terminal needs more gate space, we need
00:56some more stands, we need to enhance our security which is an ongoing project. We've got major
01:02refurbishment of the runway coming up in the next two years. But this is a story that we've
01:07been telling for the last 12 years. What we're hoping is that the Vanshi experience will
01:11allow us to build better, more efficiently, using new innovative techniques, understanding
01:17how design has progressed. As a sole airport, you get one chance at doing a major terminal
01:24expansion every five or six years. Whereas now we can look back at the experience of
01:28probably three or four terminal expansions every year happening across the Vanshi network.
01:32So that's where we think the value is. So as I say, I think we have the opportunity
01:37to grow faster and better and more efficiently and really put the customer service and the
01:43sustainability at the heart of that. Learning from our cousins across Edinburgh.
01:48We heard from the president of Vanshi Airports who talked about how they plan to support
01:54the airport through its latest development.
01:58Tourism value for Edinburgh is in and out. Out because Scottish like to travel. It's
02:04a peripheral zone of the world so you like to travel anywhere and clearly Edinburgh is
02:10the Scotland's airport and coming in because with the festival, with the whisky tourism,
02:16with what you have to deliver, it's a very balanced airport. We believe in the future
02:21growth. We don't invest just for the past, we invest for the future and it's a continuity
02:25and enhancement of potential. Continuity because the master plan, the ideas of the airports
02:30we invested in are fantastic for us but we believe there is even a stronger potential
02:36of growth for the future and we are happy to help. It's more a support and enhancement.
02:42We have a dedicated team at the HQ more to help and to refresh some ideas and in agreement
02:49with Michael, we'll particularly in the next year expand to cope with the growth because
02:54we think there is a potential growth to deliver. We'll be over 2019 before COVID this year
03:00and now the best is to understand the airport is very good first. It's a very good airport,
03:06very well managed. Then, try to figure out some details. In innovation, we think in the
03:11future artificial intelligence will bring some idea about biometry, about the way to
03:16detect what is in the luggage, artificially. So this type of thing will work. When you
03:21have a network, we test and try. One of our priority top all of us, long haul direct links.
03:28We don't want people to go for hubs. We don't manage so many hubs on our side. We think
03:33it's better to go point to point as we are in London and Gatwick and so the more direct
03:38routes we bring will be a common added value. So China is clearly a good target.
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