Pictorial Lounge Review: EDI British Airways Lounge
Index to Genius1 Trip Reports
Last month I visited Scotland’s capital for the first time since the Millennium year, and the airport for the first time in over 6 years. When BA merged with bmi in 2012, they quickly turned their attention to the larger space at EDI occupied by the bmi Diamond Club lounge. Just a year later, BA opened one of their latest concept lounges in the ex-bmi space, over double the size of the previous lounge and offering an outside view (albeit of a car park rather than the apron). This lounge follows the concept known as Galleries Evolution internally within BA designed by Glasgow-based interior designer Graven, but carries the British Airways Lounge branding in common with all new lounge openings and refurbishments since 2012.
The lounge is arranged in a rough Y shape, with the reception at the base of the stem. The lounge benefits from having very welcoming reception staff, and friendly waiting staff too who did a good job of keeping the lounge clean and tidy, although sadly less than 4 years after opening a few maintenance issues (eg. marked walls) are beginning to show. BA should realise that no matter how visually appealing their lounges are (or not, in the case of some of the older lounges), regular maintenance is just as important as good cleaning in keeping the space looking its best.
Just beyond the impressive reception area to the right is a magazine and newspaper rack offering the usual limited array of literature, whilst to the left is a luggage storage area and small row of armchairs.
Just beyond this is the entrance to the washrooms, which are a little spartan although feature modern Silestone countertops and the usual Elemis amenities. They are certainly an upgrade over the terrible T5 lounge plastic washrooms.
Opposite the washroom entrance is the main dining area, broken into two sections; a coffee station area, and a combined buffet and bar. The former of these two areas features both high and low level seating, and feature lighting above.
The latter area features only low level tables, including comfortable bench seating along the wall behind both dining sections, tables for two in the central lounge area and a long communal white table near the washroom entrance.
Food options when I visited in the evening included the usual domestic lounge selection of soup, bread rolls, sandwiches, cheese, nuts, crisps and biscuits. I couldn’t see any of the whole fresh fruit that is usually to be found in these lounges.
Behind the dining area adjacent to the windows is the main lounge seating area, featuring multiple groups of armchairs. Another section of seating, including a couple of wing-back chairs, is to be found in the right hand portion of the Y.
The left hand part of the Y contains more seating, another newspaper and magazine stand, a couple of small meeting rooms (a great touch) and the Study. Power and USB sockets are in plentiful supply throughout the lounge, and the wifi was reasonably fast.
I was very impressed with what BA had done with the space available to them. The lounge design, now rolling out across the network, is very much to my taste; understated but sophisticated. Whilst EDI is not the most visually stunning of spaces with which to work, the scope of application of this concept at different airports is huge as can be seen from the variety of new lounges popping up across the network. The lounge joins a growing list of airports now showcasing this design; GLA, LGW, AMS, DXB, CPT, SIN, IAD and most recently BOS. Soon to come are refurbishments at JFK, SFO and other US lounges.