Report could see new air age for Orkney
(story dated: February 22, 2003)

Air travel in Orkney could be revolutionised if the UK government accept the findings of a new study into the viability of various routes within the Highlands and Islands.

The report proposes that the number of Orkney flights could double — and raises the prospect that present air fares could be halved.

The study calls for two daily return flights between Orkney and Edinburgh, Glasgow and Shetland, four return flights to Inverness and five round trips to Aberdeen.

The six-month study, compiled by aviation and travel consultants, Laurie Price and Alan Cooke, found that improved air travel would act as a catalyst for economic development within the Highlands and Islands, according to Councillor Charlie King, the chairman of HITRANS, the region’s consultative body on transport.

Councillor King was speaking in advance of a lobby of MSPs at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh today, Thursday, when full details of the study will be revealed.

The chairman of the OIC’s transportation committee, Councillor Stephen Hagan, said he was “excited” by the recommendations in the study.

The report envisages a whole network of feeder air services centred on Inverness, which will allow passengers to arrive in the Highland capital before lunchtime and be able to catch connecting flights to any one of the other eight island airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports, including Kirkwall and Sumburgh, the same afternoon.

Councillor Hagan suggested that increasing the frequency of flights to and from places like Kirkwall would have the main impact of “opening up” air services in the Highlands and Islands “like never before.”

The consultants’ study found that while the number of passengers travelling to and from Scotland by air had doubled during the past ten years, numbers flying to and from the Highlands and Islands had only shown a marginal increase in the same period.

Councillor Hagan felt that this showed the huge potential for additional passengers if fares were reduced, schedules were improved and the frequency of flights was increased — all of which the HITRANS study recommends.

He noted that for Orkney alone, the report proposes having two daily return flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Shetland, three return flights to Inverness direct and a fourth via Wick and five round trips to Aberdeen.

Councillor Hagan said the introduction of Public Service Obligations to operate on these services would reduce fares by about a half.

He explained that this week’s lobby to Edinburgh was to brief Highlands and Islands MSPs on the contents of the HITRANS study and for them to try to help influence the UK government on the subject of air transport which was a “reserved matter” for Westminster.

Councillor Hagan also hoped, by raising it now, that improving the Highlands and Islands air service would become an election issue for politicians standing for the Scottish Parliament in May.