VINCI completes the deal on Edinburgh Airport

The temperature in the buildings at Edinburgh Airport will be reduced to a moderate 17°C as new owners VINCI officially move into position.

Nicolas Notebaert, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VINCI Concessions and President of VINCI Airports was in Edinburgh on Thursday to meet the press. He said this is one policy through which the company ensures best use of energy in all the airports where it has interests. And, in countries which are a bit warmer than Scotland, where they own airports which require air conditioning, that does not begin to kick in until the temperature rises to 26°C.

Mr Notebaert said: “An airport is a city, and you can be an example for the country.”

He said that this £1.27 billion deal is very much a long term investment and confirmed the company is fully committed to the new deal. He also announced proudly that he and his colleagues have already met with the First Minister and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

The ownership of Edinburgh Airport has been formally split in two unequal halves after the acquisition of 50.01% by VINCI Airports from Global Infrastructure Partners was formally concluded earlier this week.

While Mr Notebaert is keen on the existing business plan which Edinburgh has already set out, he noted that there will be much that VINCI HQ can offer in the way of lessons already learned elsewhere but he is happy that the local management is left to get on with the job.

The company has interests in 70 airports worldwide and so the future may involve taking ideas from some of those. He is particularly keen on developing long distance point to point routes and said: “We believe there is even a stronger potential of growth for the future.”

And Mr Notebaert is keen on offering passengers a great experience after security where “they have some time”. VINCI has just made changes at Kansai Airport in Japan where they have introduced luxury shopping for Chinese passengers and he would like VINCI airports to sell more Scotch whisky at the point just before passengers board their planes.

Gordon Dewar, CEO of Edinburgh Airport, said this was a really important investment “which we are all very excited about”.

Mr Dewar continued: “The best sign of our success is our connectivity. That’s what we are fundamentally delivering for Scotland, the ability for people to come here and for Scots to go to the rest of the world effectively, efficiently and directly wherever possible.”

Mr Dewar said that the direction of travel is already set out as management at Edinburgh Airport already know they need more gate space, more stands, to enhance security and to conduct a major refurbishment of the runway, but he hopes that with VINCI on board it “will allow us to build better, more efficiently using new innovative techniques”. He also regards the new investment as the opportunity to “grow faster and better to really put customer service and sustainability at the heart of that”.

Michael McGhee of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) who have owned the airport for the last twelve years said: “We have really enjoyed the way the airport has grown. It has come a long way in terms of facilities, services, innovation, and network connectivity. We know this is low risk, because we did exactly the same at Gatwick on exactly the same basis five years ago.” This partnership took the London airport through Covid and the restrictions of the pandemic and survived.