Edinburgh Airport Airspace Change Consultation

Introduction from the Chief Executive

We’re asking for your views on the impact of modernising our flight paths to make them more efficient, reduce the number of people affected by noise from them and reduce their carbon footprint.

Why are we doing this now? An industry-wide drive led by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to create airspace infrastructure fit for the 21st century is now underway. This national Airspace Change Programme aims to deliver the vision of the Government’s Airspace Modernisation Strategy to deliver quicker, quieter, and cleaner journeys and more capacity for the benefit of those who use and are affected by UK airspace. A key element of the strategy is to introduce more modern navigation methods; commonly called Performance Based Navigation (PBN).

The demand for aviation to and from Scotland is also growing. This saw us welcoming more than 15.7 million people through our doors in 2024.

We connect Scotland globally, currently connecting to 157 destinations with 37 airlines. Demand for aviation to and from Scotland will remain high, so it is important that we ensure we invest in and create the conditions to ensure that the demand can be met by a sustainable, modern aviation infrastructure.

Our proposals modernise our arrival and departure routes whilst also reviewing our controlled airspace structure to ensure we are using the minimum volume of airspace necessary.

We believe this improves community noise and greenhouse gas emissions whilst also reducing passenger delay and improving access for other airspace users.

Whilst our overall proposal provides an improvement in as many areas as possible, we know airspace change is not an easy process, nor is it one to take lightly. We know that some people will have concerns, and we will need to ensure that any change minimises noise and disruption whilst delivering a safe, effective and sustainable solution.

This is why we are consulting on these plans to modernise the infrastructure above us. We want your views; we want to gather as many opinions as possible.

We’ve used technology to ensure that our consultation is available to all and we’ll also be visiting different areas over the course of the consultation to meet with communities and other stakeholders to explain our proposals.

The consultation runs from Monday 20th October 2025 and ends at 23:59 on Sunday 25th January 2026. We look forward to discussing these plans and to receiving your views.

Gordon Dewar