TURNHOUSE Airport’s elegant new terminal was opened in April 1956 by Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation.
It meant that Scotland now had two of the three permanent terminal buildings erected since the war at British airports. The other two were at Renfrew and London airports.
The £84,000 Turnhouse terminal was expected to deal with, on then-current estimates, well over 70,000 passengers a year. Passenger figures had jumped from 16,000 in 1951 to 55,000 in 1954 – and in 1955, after the launch by British European Airways (BEA) of Viscount services to and from London, to nearly 70,000.
BEA also operated services from Edinburgh to Birmingham, Aberdeen, Wick and Orkney, while other airlines offered flights to Dublin and Belfast, with the Isle of Man in the pipeline.
Mr Watkinson said that, after reviewing the remarkable growth figures, the justification for the new building was quite plain. It had been specifically designed to be extended, for the airport was by no means at its peak, he added.
The photograph shows two passengers at the terminal, preparing to board their flight.
The city’s Lord Provost, Sir John Banks, said that divided public opinion, lack of knowledge of the practicable application of air traffic, and the interference of a world war had resulted in delay of Edinburgh airport and its buildings. But the wait was over; the city had a fine building as the permanent and visible evidence of the existence of an airport.
Addressing Mr Watkinson, he added: “It might not be ill-timed of me, while we have the minister present”, he said, “to remind him that not very far from here there is a well-known river which is much in need of a bridge.
“If the Minister could do something to expedite that, I will make him this promise – if it is open, and he is still in office, we will invite him to drive the first car across”.
Read more: Herald Diary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here