Edinburgh Airport arrivals hall 'very industrial and dated' - chief executive Gordon Dewar
Immigration space “not the standard we aspire to”
The immigration arrivals hall at Scotland’s busiest airport where tourists get their first impression of Edinburgh is “very industrial and dated” and “not the standard we aspire to”, its chief executive has admitted.
The frank description came in response to concerns from members of Edinburgh Airport’s watchdog body over visitors’ poor experience when flying into the capital.
They were echoing scores of criticisms posted on social media such as LinkedIn which the airport has dismissed as coming from a vocal minority, pointing instead to its average passenger satisfaction score of 86 per cent.
The admission comes amid continuing strong passenger growth, which was up 6.5 per cent between January and March.
The January total topped 1 million for the first time, with up to 1.9m a month expected in the summer and another record of more than 17m this year.
Donald Spencer, who covers consumer affairs for the Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee, said: "The arrivals experience is a frequent thing on social media and it is something that really does get to people.
“There are comments frequently made about the impression given to foreign visitors about when they arrive here."
Fellow committee member Kevin Lang, a Liberal Democrat city councillor whose Almond ward includes the airport, said: "This is the first impression that people get from around the world when they come to our capital city.
"I don't know if we gave all of them a great experience last year.”
Criticisms of the arrivals experience on LinkedIn have included from Alex Orr, managing director of Orbit Communications, who described the immigration hall as "effectively a vast cattle shed".
Cris Thacker, communications manager at Fred. Olsen Renewables, said: "The welcome is akin to a eastern block state finding its feet in the 1990s."
Angus Reid, senior sales development manager at books wholesaler Bookspeed, said: "The welcome at Edinburgh Airport is shoddy, disorganised and lacking any sort of civic pride."
Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar said: "I would be the first to admit that our immigration hall is not designed for the length of time it has been there or for the volume we have got in it.
"It is very industrial and very dated. That is something we are aware of.
"It was done in a hurry. It is not the standard we aspire to."
The airport said the hall would be replaced as part of a major redevelopment of the terminal, but declined to provide a timescale.
Mr Dewar said: "The new immigration hall will be transformational, but at the moment we have to work with what we have and ensure we have got the best service we can deliver within that constraint."
Jay Roberts, Scotland East lead at Border Force, which operates passport control in the hall, said: "We have invested heavily in training our staff.
"There will be peak times when you will see queues, so we are looking to draft in more staff at those times so hopefully we can reduce them.
“We want to make the passenger experience as painless and swift as possible, and I’m quite confident we will do that.”
The airport said it had received fewer than one complaint per 10,000 passengers between January and March and the average satisfaction score over that period was 86.2 per cent.
The 324 complaints received were 10 per cent down on the same period last year and 30 per cent down on October to December.
Total compliments were up by 7 per cent to 32 compared to a year ago and up 19 per cent on the previous three months.
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