The aircraft that operate at night

Edinburgh Airport is a 24 hour operational airport and has been for over 20 years. Contrary to some opinion, there are no restrictions on the number of aircraft that can use Edinburgh Airport at night.

Around 18 aircraft operate from the airport on an average night, between 23:00 and 06:00. Many of these are early morning departing passenger aircraft between 05:00 and 06:00 and it is for this reason the airport as chosen the time of 05.45 to bring the main runway back into operation. This will help ensure as many of these early morning departing passenger aircraft as possible operate from the main runway.

Edinburgh Airport would expect that most of the flights that residents will see and hear at night will be the cargo and mail flights. Edinburgh Airport has a considerable cargo and mail operation, with major companies like TNT and DHL in operation. Almost 20,000 tonnes of cargo is transported to and from the airport every year.

The Royal Mail also uses Edinburgh Airport for its east of Scotland hub operation. The airport is now the Royal Mail’s second largest operation outside of London, helping to transport tonnes of mail between Edinburgh and other parts of the UK.

Most of these cargo and mail flights operate between 23:00 and 01:00.

Table 2 – Breakdown of aircraft operating at Edinburgh Airport between 23:00 and 06:00.

Since the cargo market tends to be fairly static, there is little difference in the number of night time flights operating from the airport during the course of the year. As a result, the average number of flights per night during the course of the project should not change significantly. 

This is one of the reasons why the airport has decided to run the project over the summer. Carrying out the work between March and November also helps to minimise the potential disruption to the project because of poor weather.