News of the departure of Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar came as such a surprise last week, writes Business Editor Ian McConnell.

It was probably the sheer momentum of Edinburgh Airport and Gordon Dewar’s clear enthusiasm for building on this and confidence about the future that meant news last week of his departure came as such a surprise.

I interviewed Mr Dewar twice last year, and he seemed on both occasions to be buoyed by the airport’s growth and in no doubt that further new flight wins would be landed.

And there is certainly no reason to believe that this is not still the case.

News of Mr Dewar’s departure came hard on the heels of some stellar passenger numbers for 2025 being reported by Edinburgh Airport in late January.

And he has propelled passenger numbers higher at Edinburgh Airport since he returned to take the top job in 2012. Obviously, the coronavirus pandemic period was the exception to this but the airport rebuilt connectivity fast as Scotland emerged from that grim time.

Mr Dewar has certainly for most of the time since 2012 enjoyed a much greater tailwind than his counterparts at Glasgow Airport.

That said, Kam Jandu, who became chief executive of Glasgow Airport owner AGS Airports last January following the takeover by the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s AviAlliance platform of AGS from Ferrovial and Macquarie, has in recent months had a flurry of new flight wins to announce himself.

So too has Mr Dewar as Edinburgh Airport has also continued to prosper.

This should surely reinforce belief that there is plenty of room for growth at Scotland’s biggest two passenger airports. There are various reasons why this should be so, including the potential to offer direct flights to numerous destinations which many passengers currently travel to from Glasgow or Edinburgh by connecting through other places.

Mr Dewar, when I interviewed him in February last year, made no bones about Glasgow Airport being Edinburgh’s nearest competitor, and the........

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