It might not set the record book alight, but if it wasn't profitable, surely they'd ditch it.
And i'd be surprised if "all seats are sold at that approximate level", they will surely push the fares up once they start selling or get closer to departure. That would also help with profitablility

Hainan to swap to the 787-9 on 1st July, then to the 787-8 after 20th July.

This all seems a little bit strange. Even if the bookings are a bit low you'd have thought they'd have given it two or three months to see how things went. Are the Dublin flights still in the system? Is the impending arrival of EK at EDI hoovering up Chinese tourists (many of whom like to visit Dubai en route to or from Europe).

Dublin doesn't seem to appear either for me at least. I'd be very surprised if they changed it to a seasonal route this early on. Hopefully it's just an error in the system.

Maybe the double drop arrangement will end from 27 October and Dublin and Edinburgh will each get their own flights thereafter?

HU only filed the current schedule into early Nov so I expect a finial decision will be due soon but given they announce things with a month or two could well be September.

I don't know what it is that attracts Chinese tourists to the middle east particularly. I can't say I've ever heard of them wanting to spend a day or two in Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi en-route in any sizeable figure anyway. They tend to be more interested in European cities as they are so vastly different to their own. The large groups often fly in, do a circuit of a country, or maybe a few neighbouring countries in a fully loaded, high impact tour and then go straight home.

As for HU. It is a bit of a mix and match, but then it is very early days. I've heard the route will go direct for DUB and EDI in winter, but then that's not from any kind of reliable source, just hearsay. I doubt they would have invested in the local staff, the GHA training and had the high profile launch to have a short summer only service. Not only that but EDI has also gone all out, updating signs in the terminal to show Mandarin way finding for the transit passengers and a large floor to ceiling set of instructions for said passengers in the baggage hall. They clearly have long term plans.

The road access at EDI has been inadequate for several years. The RHS (which IMO is in the wrong city anyway, it would be better placed in Stirling, Perth, or a location in Fife) just adds to an already strained network of roads and the whole thing fails. This year they have been particularly over enthusiastic and have closed off roads and made diversion routes a good week or so before the RHS actually starts. Extremely annoying for those of us who use the airport regularly. They have a solution for staff though. The old taxi ways and runway 12/30 has been opened up as an alternative exit from the staff car parks to avoid the main road out. That will take away a few hundred cards throughout the day, so that does help somewhat, but it's only for staff. I suspect this route will one day be an official road from the Maybury direction. Building a dedicated road to Gogarburn roundabout is one thing, but I hope they don't ignore the other direction too. I would argue that most traffic to EDI comes from the M8/M9 and once they hit Newbridge that's where the bottlenecks happen. The M8/M9 should have been extended to the Gyle as a spur road and the Airport/RHS given a proper dedicated route in and out. The traffic has no option but to build up when it goes from Motorway to A road to country lane in the space of barely 2 miles.

I can assure you that if you visit Dubai (as I do regularly) the place is hoching with Chinese visitors staying 24/48 hours. To some extent they have replaced the Russians. All the staff in the upmarket hotels now know at least a few phrases of Manderin.

But are they heading for Europe? More likely to their big projects in Africa.

After all heading to the UK from China via the ME3 is going the long way round.

They are tourists, not project workers. They are heading to or returning from Europe.

Who said it should?

It's in everyones interest for them to move. I'm sure the attendees of the Highland Show hate sitting in the inevitable queues just as much as the airport passengers do.

The land they are on will be worth a fortune to the airport - cash in, buy up a cheap plot of land in the middle of nowhere, and build up a new, larger venue, and still have some change left over.

How about moving it to Airth? Motorway conections and smackbang in the middle of the country. No chance an airport would be built there!

Regards 4ea

I merely stated it should be held in a better location. Indeed you see trucks and vans, as well as coaches and minibuses covered in logos and company names from mainly the North of Scotland coming to it. The name "Highland Show" suggests it is in the wrong place too, it's nothing to do with the capital city which surely has it's own plethora of attractions? It doesn't need to be in a rural location or even located that far away from Edinburgh, but Ingliston is not really a suitable place these days. It doesn't really matter if they were there first (which they weren't anyway), the fact is the infrastructure around the RHSG doesn't meet the requirements of today. In any case, the people will go to wherever it is, much like any other show. Travelling to a different location once per year is hardly going to put many off.

Anyway, to me it's not really a big deal. I navigate the traffic and manage fine for the day or so when it's in town, but I was thinking more from the actual organisers POV. They could move it to a new purpose built venue in a location that is not affected by already confined spaces and an inadequate road system. The show itself has presumably grown since the 1960s, yet the venue and road network have barely changed. That alone should be cause for them to cash in and built a new, world class facility which will allow an even bigger and better show. Even a glimpse of the show ground from the road to the airport lets one see the contributors appear to have very little space to display their wares.


The idea that the airport should move is ridiculous. You can't honestly think it's a sensible suggestion to move an entire airport and runway and all the other stuff that goes with that to a town which already houses a large petrochemical plant as well as tens of thousands of people. A new showground and exhibition centre is obviously going to be easier to build than an airport and the relocation of the RHSG would allow both to benefit from more space and improved access. The roads are not suitable for either, let alone both.

In addition to the visitors, many of whom are staying over at least one night, there are also hundreds, if not thousands of people working on site and staying for up to a week. These showgrounds, like exhibition centres, need to be located near accommodation and other facilities. Hence they stopped being itinerant, as they once were, and built a fixed site which offers the possibility of income the rest of the year. There's no business case for a site in the country.

It's no accident that the NEC was built next Birmingham airport and its railway station.

According to Wikipedia;

I know, for example, that the show took place in Peebles during the 19th century when most of the visitors and exhibitors travelled there by rail. This required extensive improvements to the local rail infrastructure.

I agree that it would be easier to relocate the showground than the airport but the price the RHAS were demanding was extortionate. As a result, expansion of the airport will focus on the existing land footprint for the foreseeable future. Now that runway 12/30 has been permanently closed, a lot of development land has been freed up.

The road infrastructure definitely needs to be improved and various schemes have been proposed including new routes to the M8, Newbridge and Gogar but nothing has been approved yet. The proposed new development between the airport and Gogar will require a new road but will bring additional traffic so it's doubtful that congestion will reduce.

The RHSG could have relocated to the land freed up by the closure of 12/30. They could have done some kind of deal with the airport. That's a huge area which would have allowed them to built a purpose built exhibition hall and outdoor space, with plenty of land, much closer to the railway and tram tracks and actually further away from noisy active runways and taxiways. A new road network could have been built too, allowing dedicated roads to lead to the new RHSG for major events via the road that leads down to EDI Cargo and the current roads to be used exclusively for airport traffic with a bit of upgrading. The redevelopment of the current RHSG site could have allowed for a dedicated exit road from Newbridge to the terminal too as well as new spaces for the hotels and various other businesses currently being built around the airport and expected to be built on the new land. That would have freed up space for the current road leading down to the airport to be upgraded for people coming from the city/Gogar.

Sadly though, you are correct, there will be yet more congestion when the new developments start springing up,

Terminal expansion
 

The first jetbridge has been put on the terminal expansion as there is pictures on twitter of it.

Are these brand new or second hand from another airport?

I had heard that the new jetty at CWL was second hand from LHR T1, although how true that is I don't know.

To be honest, EDI could do with new jetties all round, some of them are quite unreliable and tired looking.

Could be worse.. think Aberdeen..

Was today's, rather yesterday's, flight from/to Tbilisi a one-off, or is a specialist operator running a tour programme?

I was kind of hoping for that too. It also helps staff to see from a distance if there is a queue of people on the bridge or not.

I hope they are at least heated/Air Conditioned, but to be honest if the state of the other jetties at EDI is anything to go by, as long as they don't reek of damp and have have litter, rust, rainwater, costa coffee cups, sodden, stinking carpets and filthy walls, they will already be a vast improvement.

I believe the 'brand new' AirBridges are being supplied by the German manufacturer Thyssen Krupp who are one of the worlds major suppliers of AirBridges and without coming across as being sarcastic of course they will be heated/air conditioned!

Yes, they would. Currently all of ABZ is on the ground floor - there is no upper floor. You'd need to add a second floor onto the terminal, along with escalators, lifts etc for disabled passengers. That's quite a major investment, and for what gain? A slightly better boarding experience on BA? It's not going to attract any new services to ABZ, so it's just not a worthwhile investment.

Not been any route announcements in a while, Does anyone have any route rumours they may have heard or are we nearing capacity at Edinburgh?

Presumably Air India? Unless Indigo are planning to go long haul?

India has always been well served through the ME hubs, so a direct service may steal a large chunk of their customers.