00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.
00:05My name is Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman
00:07and I'm joined by our Transport Correspondent, Alistair Dalton.
00:12Alistair, we've got plenty to talk about,
00:15particularly around Scotland's two busiest airports, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
00:19We'll get to that shortly.
00:21Firstly, the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:24And we led on an interview with the new Chair of the National Trust
00:29for Scotland, Dame Sue Bruce.
00:32You may remember Dame Sue from her role as a Senior Member Chief
00:37of the Edinburgh City Council for a number of years.
00:41She's talking about the picture for the NTS.
00:43And while it's positive they've had a near record,
00:48certainly a very strong return in terms of money and received from wills
00:54and also from fundraising, millions of pounds that will go towards
00:59their estate.
01:00Dame Sue's also talking about the need to look at some
01:03of their effectively non-visited properties within their portfolio
01:07and needing to sell some of them and whether it could be wise
01:10to cheer up the future of the National Trust.
01:14You can read that full piece from Alison Campsie at scotsman.com.
01:19Just go to the Heritage tab if you can't find the story at all
01:22from the navigation bar.
01:24Alice there, we're here to talk about airports.
01:28We've had confirmation now of when resurfacing will take place
01:32at Edinburgh Airport, which will be significant.
01:34Can you talk us through that?
01:36Yes.
01:37So it's a long-planned 30 million complete resurfacing in the airport runway,
01:42first time since 2008.
01:46And something that shouldn't affect flights.
01:51Many airlines have changed, brought forward their last arrivals
01:55and departures, which are around midnight at the moment.
01:59The runway is going to be closed from the beginning of November
02:03right through to the end of March from just before midnight
02:08till just before 6 a.m., five nights a week.
02:13Now, this is significant because although the airport says
02:19it's just a scheduled upgrade, we have discovered from a freedom
02:24of information request that, in fact, there were emergency closures
02:30of the runway 16 times over the course of a year up to last year,
02:37and that affected almost 100 flights and nine hours worth of disruption.
02:41Now, it doesn't seem to be so bad since then, but it has been somewhat
02:45embarrassing for the airport, something that hasn't happened as far
02:48as we know other airports in Scotland or, in fact, elsewhere in the UK.
02:55So much needed, and we'll see how that progresses.
03:01Alistair, on top of that, you've also written a story in the past 24,
03:0548 hours about the accounts of both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.
03:10They paint an interesting picture.
03:12Can you tell us about it?
03:12Yeah, further evidence of the post-COVID bounce back in aviation.
03:19I've always said that the long-term trend is aviation is up despite massive shocks
03:25to the system like terrorism, the Icelandic ash cloud some decades ago,
03:34and then more recently, COVID, but Edinburgh Airport is firmly back on growth.
03:42Last year, it produced another record of just under 16 million passengers,
03:47and it's expected to top that this year with a whole host of new flights,
03:51including more transatlantic routes.
03:54And this success is reflected in their profits,
03:57which increased by about three quarters to £144 million last year.
04:02So that's from income.
04:04The airport gets a proportion of the income from shops, from car parking,
04:09that sort of thing at the airport.
04:11But the airport is heavily indebted.
04:14It has more than a billion pounds of debts needed for continuing expansion,
04:21and it is now part of a big French airport company, Vanchi.
04:27Glasgow also has done well.
04:30It profits up 80% to £73 million.
04:34It's only got half as many passengers as Edinburgh.
04:37It used to be the dominant airport in Scotland 20 years ago.
04:41It's passengers up to about £8 million last year.
04:45Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are increasing by £10 million, so 10%.
04:48So it is increasing too, but at a slower rate.
04:52Both airports have got big plans to expand their terminals
04:55and cope with this extra demand.
04:59Alistair, just away from the planes,
05:04we go to the subject of trains instead.
05:07This is a revamp of the National Railway Museum,
05:10not here in Scotland, but a distinct Scottish influence on it.
05:14Can you talk us through?
05:14Yeah, there's lots going on at the moment with the 200th anniversary
05:19of the birth of the modern railway.
05:21And the National Railway Museum, as you say, it's in York,
05:25but it does cover the whole of Britain
05:26and a significant Scottish element to it.
05:31In fact, the head curator, Andrew McLean, is a Scot,
05:36and he's talked me through some of the Scottish exhibits
05:39in a huge new revamp they've done of a former goods shed
05:44at the museum called Station Hall.
05:48It opens to the public tomorrow after £11 million revamp,
05:52and there's some fascinating stuff in there,
05:55pictures of marauding circus elephants at Aberdeen Station.
05:59Really proving that the railways in the day would carry everything.
06:05And for those who've seen the animated film Madagascar 3,
06:10it's not just a figment of the imagination.
06:12Circus animals really did travel by train.
06:15But there's other interesting freight things,
06:18insulated fish wagons to take Scottish fish south to London,
06:21but also steam-heated wagons for bananas
06:26so they could ripen on their way to Scotland.
06:28So there's going to be plenty to see there,
06:33and I'm looking forward to having a look around soon.
06:36It's an incredible story about the use of the heating for bananas.
06:43It's a great read, that story.
06:45It's at scotsman.com.
06:47If you ever can't find any of Alistair Dalton's coverage,
06:50there's a transport tab available in the navigation bar
06:54that will take you to the stories that we've spoken about
06:56here on the National Railway Museum,
06:58as well as Edinburgh Airports resurfacing
07:01and the accounts and profits of both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.
07:06You can follow us on all social media,
07:08and please go out and pick up a copy of the Scotsman in print tomorrow.
07:12We'll have all the very latest news here in Scotland
07:14and further afield,
07:15including the exchanges that come out of First Minister's Questions today.
07:20Alistair, thanks to you,
07:21and thanks to everyone else for joining us.
07:23Thank you for being so much for watching.
07:31ittelijfm.com
07:39Thank you very much for joining us.
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