Passengers told to arrive 2.5 hours before flight
● Delays on the cards during upgrade to baggage system
Passengers flying out of Edinburgh Airport are being told to arrive extra early before their flight leaves as changes to the check-in hall take place.
Ryanair wrote to passengers stating they must arrive at least two-and-a-half hours before their flight leaves due to the ongoing transformation to the check-in area.
The £35 million upgrade of Edinburgh Airport’s baggage system is already under way, with disruption expected to last until March 2020 and the new system fully installed by 2021.
Passengers will have to check-in their luggage as normal before taking it to two “injection points”.
Baggage handlers will then load it on to the belt for the bags to be processed as normal, however Ryanair have warned passengers the process could take longer than normal.
In an email to passengers, they told customers to arrive two-and-a-half hours before their flights are due to leave in order to have enough time to drop off bags and pass through security.
The email said: “Edinburgh Airport are making changes to the check in area as part of their terminal improvement works to enhance customer experience.
“We would like to advise all customers travelling from Edinburgh Airport from now up until the end of March 2020 to leave enough time, preferably 2.5 hours, to drop your bags off and pass through Airport security.
“Signs will be displayed in the terminal directing customers to areas where they can check their bags in.”
The airport’s improvements will see brand new technology being installed for scanning and sorting luggage and sections of the airport being renovated to accommodate it.
Jet2’s check-in area has already been reduced, with easyjet also moved out of the main check-in hall next to Jet2. All of the airport’s airlines will be using the injection points by the end of October, with the airport warning passengers to be aware of the changes.
The work was planned for the winter to ensure minimal disruption to passengers during the off-peak season.
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “The upgrade of our baggage system will see the current system being entirely replaced with the most up to date technology available and will make the baggage check-in process easier for passengers.
“The project also allows us to reconfigure parts of the hall to create more space and improve the passenger experience.
“Making the majority of these changes out with peak periods will reduce any potential impact on passengers and to do that we will have to temporarily move some airlines into other areas.
“We would encourage passengers to look out for the signs in the terminal directing you to where they should check-in and always leave enough time to check-in, drop your bags and for your journey through security.”
Edinburgh Airport is the busiest airport in Scotland. In 2018 it handled over 14.3 million passengers, an increase of 6.5 per cent from 2017.
The airport is expanding to try to cope with growing passenger numbers.
Officials expect passenger numbers to reach 16.5 million by 2021. The initial expansion, completed earlier this year, is designed to support 20 million annual passengers.