Fair play to them too for stepping in while EK, QR and EY apparently keep away.
I can't see EK, QR, EY or any other airline (pax or cargo) introducing long-haul widebodies from EDI until the PCNs (pavement strength) of the taxiways /runway between Taxiway Alpha, the SE Apron and the South cargo apron are significantly strengthened and sufficient extra apron space is added. I'll be pleasantly surprised if BAA makes these investments before the sale of EDI goes through.
(See the “Aircraft Ground Movement / Parking / Docking Chart” at
NATS | AIS - Home if you want to see the layout of the aprons / taxiways /runways at EDI.)
Strengthening these taxiways / runway is likely to temporarily cause significant bottlenecks on the ground at EDI. To minimise such problems, one option might be to join up the apron and taxiways between the SE apron and the main apron (where the Archimedes pump is currently situated, in between stands 14 and 16) but this cannot be done until the apron drainage is redesigned. Once the main apron and the SE apron have been joined together this would provide a suitable taxiway for heavily loaded widebodies to depart from the large stands on the SE apron via the main apron. It would also provide additional stands and it would provide an additional route from the SE apron to Taxiway Alpha. At that time, taxiways Lima and Mike and the stretch of runway 12/30 between these taxiways and taxiways Hotel and Sierra (the recently added southern link between 12/30 and the SE apron and the link between 12/30 and the South cargo apron) should be able to be strengthened without causing as much disruption to ground movements.
The redesign of the drainage will need to be done within a couple of years in order to comply with regulations concerning de-icing fluid and the likes being deposited into water courses but one of the solutions being considered for this project involves re-routing the Gogar Burn and that will no doubt raise planning and environmental concerns.
A more immediate solution would be to re-instate diagonal stands on the north side of the main apron (somewhere in the area between stands 5 and 14). e.g. with BMI looking likely to cease flying soon, perhaps stand 6A could be re-instated along with the diagonal stand that used to exist between stands 11 and 14? Stands are in such short supply at EDI however that freeing up stands for long-haul widebodies is going to remain problematic until the aprons are further extended.
In addition to the airside constraints there are shortcomings with other terminal facilities for international flights at EDI which have been discussed in other posts in this thread.
My conclusion is that it’ll be a year or two before we see EK, QR, EY or any other airline introducing larger long-haul widebodies from EDI. In the meantime, B763s are likely to be the largest long-haul aircraft that can use EDI on a regular basis and even then there is doubt about whether or not the existing stands 2 and 4 can accommodate wingletted B763s unless the adjacent stands are shrunk in size which then creates knock-on problems.
I hope I’m wrong and that we see additional long haul flights from EDI sooner but I’m not holding my breath.