Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a 30-square-mile (78 km2) rural area.
Located in the south-east of Scotland, Edinburgh lies on the east coast of the Central Belt, along the Firth of Forth, near the North Sea.
Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Parliament. The city was one of the major centres of the Enlightenment, led by the University of Edinburgh, earning it the nickname Athens of the North. The Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. There are over 4,500 listed buildings within the city. In May 2010, it had a total of 40 conservation areas covering 23% of the building stock and 23% of the population, the highest such ratios of any major city in the UK. In the 2009 mid year population estimates, Edinburgh had a total resident population of 477,660.
Edinburgh is the most competitive large city in the UK according to the Centre for International Competitiveness. Edinburgh also has the highest Gross value added per employee figure of any city in the UK outside London, measuring £50,256 in 2007. A combination of these factors saw Edinburgh named the Best Small City of the future by fDi Magazine for 2010/11. Education and health, finance and business services, retailing and tourism are the largest employers. The economy of Edinburgh is largely based on the services sector — centered around banking, financial services, higher education, and tourism. As of March 2010 unemployment in Edinburgh is comparatively low at 3.6%, and remains consistently below the Scottish average of 4.5%. Banking has been a part of the economic life of Edinburgh for over 300 years, with the establishment of the Bank of Scotland - now part of the Lloyds Banking Group - by an act of the original Parliament of Scotland in 1695.
Edinburgh Airport (IATA: EDI, ICAO: EGPH) is located at Turnhouse in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2010, handling just under 8.6 million passengers. It was also the sixth busiest airport in the UK by passengers and the fifth busiest by aircraft movements. It is located 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) west of the city centre and is situated just off the M8 motorway.
The airport is owned and operated by BAA, which also owns and operates five other UK airports, and is itself owned by ADI Limited, an international consortium, which includes Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and GIC Special Investments, that is led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.
The present terminal building, designed by Robert Matthew, was constructed in 1977 and has been upgraded in recent years, with new car parking facilities and an extended arrivals hall. A new control tower was completed in 2005.
There are plans for expansion of the airport, with passenger numbers expected to reach 26 million per annum by 2030.
Work is underway to construct a light rail link from the airport to Edinburgh city centre on the Edinburgh Trams network. The new system will run from an airport station across the western suburbs of Edinburgh on a segregated track; when the trams reach Haymarket railway station they will switch to street-running mode and travel through the city along Princes Street. Edinburgh Trams are expected to begin operation around 2011 or 2012.
As a cheaper alternative to the cancelled Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project, it has been proposed that an additional interchange station be constructed on the Fife Circle Line. Gogar railway station would provide interchange with airport tram services. This proposal has not yet been approved or funded.
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