THE man who guided Glasgow Airport through last year's terror attack has been appointed the new boss at Edinburgh Airport.
Gordon Dewar, 41, will take up his managing director role in September after current boss David Johnston moved to a new job with airport operator BAA.
He is Edinburgh Airport's third managing director in 18 months, but Mr Dewar, who has been acting MD for the past month, said he was looking forward to shaping the airport's expansion plans.
Born and bred in the Capital, Mr Dewar today promised to build on the airport's successes in establishing itself as Scotland's number one airport.
Before joining BAA in February last year, Mr Dewar worked for transport consultancy group Halcrow and among the projects he worked on was creating the city's road traffic greenways.
He said: "It has been a privilege to lead the team at Glasgow Airport over the last 17 months, particularly in the immediate aftermath of last year's attack, when the dedication and professionalism of our staff ensured the airport was back in business within 24 hours.
"The attack underlined the importance of emergency planning and working with external agencies.
"The day itself was obviously a challenge but it is only in the following days that you appreciate the skills of your staff and the amount of work which was put in."
He said he was looking forward to the challenges at Edinburgh and insisted the airport was "crucial" to the Capital's future.
The previous managing director, Mr Johnston, was in the airport's hot seat for less than a year having taken over from Richard Jeffrey, who had been in the post for six years.
Mr Johnston was last month promoted to group procurement director for BAA and one of his first jobs will be to help sort the aftermath of the Heathrow terminal five debacle.
Edinburgh Airport is now Scotland's busiest, carrying more than nine million passengers a year.
The growth has been achieved thanks to expansion of direct international links from the Capital.
Colin Matthews, BAA's chief executive, said: "Gordon has been a key member of the BAA Scotland team over the past two years."
•
www.edinburghairport.comThe full article contains 372 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
