Plan to Ease Effects of Flights Withdrawal

Highland Council is to launch a three-pronged campaign to combat the possible negative effects of airline bmi’s decision to end Inverness’s only link to Heathrow Airport at the end of March.

The link was lost once before when carrier BA decided unilaterally to reallocate the slot in 1997, before being re- established by bmi.

Cameron Kemp, the council’s integrated transport manager, said yesterday that while the Highlands and Islands benefited from services to Luton and Gatwick, Heathrow offered the greatest number of international flights and opportunities to make more international flight connections.

Pressure has been put on the UK Government for a Public Service Obligation to be placed on Heathrow slots for regional air services, but this has been ignored.

Mr Kemp said: “There is great concern at the lack of a transport strategy to safeguard air links with remote areas.

“Heathrow followed by Gatwick are of the greatest significance for the economy of the Highlands, but guidance from the Department for Transport doesn’t recognise the importance for us of being connected to Heathrow or Gatwick.”

Said Councillor Robbie Rowantree: “This is often seen as an Inverness issue but it is pan-Highland. Many of the high-value tourists I deal with come through Inverness, and these are the kind the kind of people we are trying to attract to the area.”

Inverness Provost Bob Wynd said: “Inverness provides a service to the Highlands and islands and that is why we have been building up the airport and trying to build up industries on the basis of the connections Inverness offers. Good air links are essential for Inverness and the Highlands and islands as a whole.”

The DfT is currently consulting on a third runway at Heathrow, which could be used for regional air services including links with Inverness. TEC service committee vice-chairman Roy Pedersen, a transport consultant, said they had to tackle the issue on three fronts.

He said: “We will maintain pressure for regional slots on the transport secretary to safeguard slots at Heathrow and Gatwick,” but he added that if that failed they had another two options.

This would involve gaining landing slots for the third runway being built at Heathrow, which could be a shorter runway and more suited to regional services, or diversifying into services linking Inverness and other gateway hubs including Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris.

(c) 2008 Press and Journal, The Aberdeen (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.