Work is due to start next month on a £40m extension to Edinburgh Airport's departure lounge following the resurfacing of the airport's main runway.

Work is due to start next month on a £40m extension to Edinburgh Airport's departure lounge following the resurfacing of the airport's main runway.

BAA, the airport owner, announced yesterday that it had completed a £16m project to resurface the runway, the busiest in Scotland, ahead of schedule and was now ready to proceed with plans to invest £250m on the airport over the next decade.

Work began on the runway, which handles 115,000 flights a year, in April and was due to be completed by the end of this month.

Its completion has brought relief to residents in south and west Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian who had night-time flights diverted over their homes while work was under way.

Planes used the airport's secondary runway while work on the main runway was being carried out.

The eight-month project involved workers laying 25,000 tonnes of asphalt and replacing more than 1000 runway lights, and will renew the life of the runway for a further 15 years.

The runway was last resurfaced in 1991.

Gordon Dewar, managing director of Edinburgh Airport, said: "This has been a complex and challenging project, involving a number of organisations and many hundreds of airport workers. I am delighted that, working together, we have completed the resurfacing work on time, and on budget.

"We are grateful to residents in those areas for their patience and goodwill over the past eight months.

"We have made every effort to minimise disruption to local communities by completing this project as quickly as possible and keeping affected people informed about the progress of the works."

Edinburgh overtook Glasgow Airport as Scotland's most popular airport earlier this year.

Mr Dewar said the airport was well placed to weather the "challenging times" ahead.

"With this major investment now complete, Edinburgh Airport can look forward to a great future as one of Europe's leading regional airports," he said.