The outgoing chief executive of Edinburgh Airport has revealed his plans to open a music club in the Scottish capital to showcase up-and-coming bands.
Gordon Dewar, in his first interview since his departure from the top job at the airport later this year was announced on February 18, also highlighted potential for him to take on “part-time” work in the aviation sector.
Mr Dewar, who will be 60 later this month, returned to Edinburgh Airport as chief executive in 2012. Annual passenger numbers, which were 9.19 million in 2012, last year climbed to a fresh record of 16.98 million.
Asked in the exclusive interview with The Herald this week what had driven his departure, Mr Dewar replied: “To be honest, 14 years drove that, so it's a lot longer than I ever anticipated when I started, and I've been through a number of cycles.”
Flagging a major capital expenditure programme to expand the airport, Mr Dewar added: “It just feels, particularly now, as we're about to launch into this huge new sort of building…thing, which is really exciting, we’ve come out in a good position in terms of the strength of the growth, it just feels, for me personally, it's like time to step back. So I'll miss it hugely. It's been a massive part of my life, certainly the biggest part of my career.
“But I just think after 14 years I want to do a little bit more. I probably have had, as I turn 60, enough of having the phone on beside my bed every night for the last 14 years, and, you know, I hope to do some other interesting stuff both personally and professionally, but it won't be a full‑time operational role going forward.”
Heart of Midlothian fan Mr Dewar revealed he would “certainly not” be relocating away from Edinburgh, his “home”, noting he was born a few miles from the airport and declaring: “I love it as a city - I think it's got huge potential.”
Revealing his desire to open a music venue in Edinburgh to fill what he sees as a gap, he said: “In my personal life it would be things like…I've got a real hankering to…open a music club in Edinburgh. I think we've lost a few brilliant venues in the city. It’s a passion of mine. I've got to first find a venue, but if I can find a way of making that happen, I would love to do that as part of my semi‑retiral going forward.”
He declared that he wanted such a music club to be “a not-for-profit organisation”.
Asked if this would feature any particular music genre, Mr Dewar replied: “Nope. The only rule is it's got to be original, authentic and ideally great. Obviously, the sort of size of venue will be an up‑and‑coming band, but we’re trying to give particularly local bands a venue where they can develop their career and showcase themselves rather than have to go elsewhere, because there's not been that opportunity in Edinburgh for quite a few years really. It's that gap of, you know, the 300 [to] 400 size venue which just doesn't really exist in the way that I think Edinburgh deserves and needs.”
He added: “I want that very much to be there for the people in the industry, you know, to be a venue they can rely upon and somewhere where both the audience and the bands know that it's there to promote the music culture rather than something overly commercial.”
Although Mr Dewar entertained passengers boarding the first of the new flights from Edinburgh to New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport at the departure gate on Monday with a rendition of the “New York, New York” anthem made famous by Frank Sinatra, he highlighted the limits of his musical ability.
Asked if he had a musical background, he replied: “No. I know enough about music to know I'm crap. I enjoy listening to other people. I've tried in vain many times to learn various instruments and, while I enjoy doing it, I would never expose anybody else to my performance. I don't dislike humanity that much. I used to play viola at school and I was so bad they put soap on my bow instead of resin so they couldn't hear me. Honestly true. My instruction from my tutor was ‘just make your bow go up and down in time’. So I think that probably summarises my musical career.”
French-based VINCI Airports acquired 50.01% of Edinburgh Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners in a deal completed in June 2024, with GIP retaining a 49.99% stake.
Mr Dewar highlighted the possibility of undertaking part-time work for VINCI and GIP after leaving the top job at Edinburgh Airport.
He said: “I'd like to keep some part‑time stuff in the aviation sector. I'm hoping that my experience is of interest to my current shareholders, perhaps in different roles. You know, both of them are still very active in buying and onboarding airports around the world, so I'd like to think I might be able to offer them something. We haven't discussed it though, so that's to come.”
Asked if his departure had been a long time in the planning, Mr Dewar replied: “I think the VINCI buy-in was an obvious big milestone. But then there was also that transition of getting these guys in the door, getting some stability around that, making sure that we'd developed the new strategy, which is much more orientated around big-build stuff and all the rest of it.
“And I wanted to make sure that that onboarding and that settling down of the team - we’d been through a lot of change already - but, you know, I think we've done that very successfully, amalgamating people into the team and keeping the spirit, keeping the confidence. And now it feels, after a couple of years, that that's the right time to hand it on, where both shareholders, I hope, are very happy with the plans we have. They're certainly very enthusiastic about supporting our plans and now it feels the right time to hand it on to someone else.”
And he quipped: “If we can go out with the Hearts winning the league, that would be a good time.”
Mr Dewar noted that Edinburgh Airport employs nearly 1,000 people directly. And he observed that a total of more than 8,000 people work on the “campus”.
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Asked how important the building of Edinburgh Airport’s employment and economic contribution was to him, Mr Dewar replied: “There's a whole host of things I've thoroughly enjoyed and been proud of, for what the team has achieved. So first of all, building a team that I think has got an amazing spirit and has demonstrated success year after year, whether it's getting through Covid or whether it's beating the market in terms of growth and in terms of extending our business. Because that business matters to everyone in Scotland, because it's connectivity, it's economic wealth.”
He added: “I love just looking up at the departure board and reflecting on what that looked like back in 2012 or even back in 2009 when I first started here, way back in my first stint. And it is transformational. It's huge what we've done.”
Mr Dewar declared the airport’s annual contribution to the Scottish economy had more than doubled since 2014.
He observed that the latest numbers for annual GVA (gross value added) were “well above” £2 billion, adding:“That's pretty important for me. The direct jobs are important to me because I know the individuals involved and you can see people succeeding and developing a career here.”
Mr Dewar also flagged the airport’s work with schools on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects, and the community involvement of staff.
He said: “I love the work we're doing with schools on STEM‑type initiatives. I'm always blown away by the number of our team that volunteer into the community projects, into projects they've done, but equally the ones that we've corralled around as an organisation and supported through our own charitable stuff. It is quite a humbling experience seeing the energy that our team, that's already busy doing the day job, still manages to bring – all that additional warmth, investment, community engagement, whatever you want to call it.
“I think that is really probably the biggest testament, and I'd love to say I hope I've had a small part in that. But you know fine well that's come from the grassroots but you do need to give people space to achieve that and encouragement to do that as well. So I hope that me and the rest of the exec team and the leadership team have fostered that space, and I hope that's a legacy that we can enjoy as a business and our neighbours and our community can enjoy for many years to come.”
