I don't disagree that BAA made a lot of improvements and presided over a huge increase in passenger numbers but the above facts suggest that BAA's ambition was not directed towards long-haul but instead focused on short to medium range flights.
The medium term view taken way back in the 90/00s was that GLA would be Scotland's one long haul gateway, no one really saw EDI growing in the way it did. The coming of the Scottish Parliament was a game changer in my view in terms of a more confident and outward looking national identity. What Scottish Airports sought to do was focus capital investment in GLA with a pier that can take eight B757 aircraft at once, all on long haul airbridge access for 7/8. No medium term view of EDI operating ME3 heavies was considered back in the early days of the century. In essence, BAA had to eventually play catchup as the market grew and grew, EDI eventually overtook GLA, something many never even considered possible.
GIP brought in a new approach and suddenly EDI has had a major expansion in long haul like GLA had in 1990 with facilities not really up to it. What's different is that GLA had a proper rebuild for heavies whereas EDI got the South East pier and more shops built out into the apron. GIP needs to have a good return before too long. At LGW they have spent a gi-normous amount of cash on easyJet's nicest airport, with long haul still flooding out to LHR first chance. Obviously. It will be interesting to see what the ROI is on LGW as well as EDI.
I would suggest the unbelievers would be better engaged accepting the fact that EDI has a wider following than "one".
Nuff said, the heretics are against me....