Mark Johnston, London Gatwick’s chief operating officer, has been named the new chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, taking over from Gordon Dewar on 1 October 2026 as he returns to his home city to lead what the announcement calls Scotland’s busiest airport.
Mark Johnston, London Gatwick’s chief operating officer, has been named the new chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, taking over from Gordon Dewar on 1 October 2026. The Edinburgh Airport CEO role puts Johnston in charge of Scotland’s busiest airport just as it enters what the airport describes as the largest capital investment programme in its history, according to London Gatwick’s announcement.
Johnston has spent two and a half years as chief operating officer at London Gatwick, where, according to Gatwick chief executive Pierre-Hugues Schmit, he led the rollout of next generation security. Before that he was managing director of Glasgow Airport. He replaces Gordon Dewar, who leaves Edinburgh Airport after 14 years in the role.
“I’m incredibly proud to be appointed Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, an airport that means a great deal to me as someone born and raised in this fantastic city,” Johnston said in the announcement. He added that Edinburgh is “an exciting time to be joining the airport as it embarks on the largest ever capital investment programme in its history.”
Pierre-Hugues Schmit, chief executive of London Gatwick, said Johnston had “amassed a wealth of technical and management experience in the airports sector over the past two decades,” crediting him for his role at Gatwick during his two and a half years as chief operating officer. Gatwick has not yet named Johnston’s successor as chief operating officer, and Schmit’s own leadership team is also changing: Gatwick’s incoming chair, Stewart Wingate, who takes up his role from the same date, 1 October 2026, will oversee both appointments landing in the same week.
What this means for Edinburgh, and for Gatwick
For Edinburgh Airport, the appointment brings in an operator with direct experience of single-runway operations from Gatwick and a Scottish airport background from Glasgow, arriving just as the airport’s capital programme moves from planning into delivery. The announcement gives no cost figure for that programme, only calling it the largest in Edinburgh’s history, so readers should expect a scoped figure to follow once contracts are let. Other operators have set out their own programme figures already, such as Sydney Airport’s capital programme, and Edinburgh’s own number is one to watch.
For Gatwick, the move opens a chief operating officer vacancy at what the announcement calls the world’s most efficient single-runway airport while a new chair also beds in, concentrating leadership change at the top of the business inside a single month. Airports tracking who runs the sector’s biggest jobs can find the wider context in Airport Business Magazine’s rundown of the biggest airport capital programmes of 2026-27, which is where Edinburgh’s spending is likely to appear once the figure is public.
Neither announcement named who will succeed Johnston as Gatwick’s chief operating officer.
The takeaway: Edinburgh Airport suppliers and contractors should expect procurement activity to firm up once Johnston is in post from 1 October and the capital programme gets a published figure. Gatwick watchers should track the chief operating officer appointment as the next confirmation from the airport, likely alongside further detail on Stewart Wingate’s chair role from the same date.
London Gatwick
