Airport delays Highland show move

The airport is expanding to cater for rising passenger numbers

Edinburgh Airport has revised expansion plans which will delay the planned relocation of The Royal Highland Showground until after 2020.

The BAA airport said it had been forced to change its longer-term plans in light of rising costs of relocating the showground in five years time.

RHASS accused BAA of cherry picking what and when to buy, to avoid paying the full cost of the relocation.

The plans require 25.5 hectares of additional land.

This would be outside the airport's current boundary.

The showground was originally due to have relocated by 2013.

The expansion plans do not include building another runway and are being put in place to cater for rising passenger numbers using the international gateway.

Forecasts predict the current passenger number of 9.1 million will rise to 12.7 million by 2013 and to 17.6m by 2020.

Our new plans provide a more cost-effective future for the development of the airport and remain in line with UK air transport policy Gordon Dewar Edinburgh Airport

Previously, the UK Government's 2003 Future of Air Transport white paper directed said the Royal Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) should relocate to facilitate the long-term growth of Edinburgh Airport.

BAA subsequently published its Edinburgh Airport Master Plan in 2006, which laid out more detailed plans to develop the airport up to the year 2030. This would have required the RHASS to relocate from 2013.

However, following the £350m cost to relocate the RHASS and the extra price it would put on airlines operating from Edinburgh Airport from increased landing charges, BAA Scotland has been forced to adopt its alternative plans.

Gordon Dewar, managing director of Edinburgh Airport, said: "We remain committed to the long-term sustainable development of Edinburgh Airport and are continuing our ambitious £265m capital investment plan to both expand and improve facilities for our passengers.

"Our new plans provide a more cost-effective future for the development of the airport and remain in line with UK air transport policy."

'Unfair move'

Ray Jones, chief executive of the RHASS, said: "To be told two years into a BAA master plan that the company has changed its mind and that there are to be further delays doesn't seem fair or reasonable.

"BAA still says it wants our land in the future, but they want to cherry pick what and when they buy, over a longer period of time, and so avoid paying for the full relocation of the showground.

"This leaves the society and Scotland's national showground with no business certainty, no ability to plan properly for the future and puts in jeopardy the opportunity to relocate to an appropriate site at Norton Park.

"We do not believe it is fair that any company should have this level of power over another commercial entity such as ourselves."

The plans involve development onto two areas of land currently owned by the RHASS. The northern fields close to the main airport runway (about 20 hectares) and a small field south of one of the airport's administrative buildings (about 1.5 hectares).

The plans also require development onto the current site of the Grampian Country Foods (about four hectares).