Airport chief ready to take off

THE head of Edinburgh Airport today announced he is quitting after being headhunted to help sort out the troubled Heathrow.

David Johnston has been at the helm in Edinburgh for a year, in which time he saw the airport crowned the busiest in Scotland.

But the 42-year-old has now been promoted to group procurement director for airport operator BAA and one of his first jobs will be to help sort the aftermath of the Heathrow T5 debacle.

Gordon Dewar, currently managing director of Glasgow Airport, will be in charge in the Capital until a permanent appointment is made.

Mr Johnston said he was confident that Edinburgh Airport would build on its position as the country's top airport but warned this could be undermined unless new access roads are built.

He said: "There is a lot to be proud of at Edinburgh. We have among the best security waiting times in the group, we have added dozens of new flights and we have secured significant capital funding for our improvement plans.

"I think the challenge at Edinburgh has been to stop looking at ourselves as a regional airport and start acting and behaving like the airport for a major capital city."

Progress has been made on the access road issues but it still only takes some minor incident to block the road and that will eventually start to turn passengers away."

Mr Johnston, a former director of County Durham-based Thorn Lighting, took over the airport's hotseat from Richard Jeffrey who had been in the post for six years.

The next airport chief will have a number of big issues to contend with, not least the threat of the airport being sold off as the Spanish-owned BAA awaits the outcome of a Competition Commission investigation into the firm's dominance of Scotland's airports.

In the 12 months to March, Edinburgh Airport attracted 9.1 million passengers – and that number is expected to grow significantly with 27 new services starting this year.

Colin Matthews, BAA's chief executive, said: "I am delighted that David Johnston has accepted my challenge to transform BAA's supply chain and its impact across the company as a whole and look forward to his contribution at the executive committee.

"In his short time at BAA, David has spearheaded the continued success of Edinburgh Airport and it is down to those efforts that his expertise is now in demand in other parts of the company."

• www.edinburghairport.com