Tourism group wants more flights to Scotland
Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow Airport and other Scottish hubs could be handling more flights in the future after VisitScotland called on the government to enable more direct services to and from Scotland.Speaking to members of the Scottish parliament, VisitScotland chief executive Philip Riddle called for the reinstatement of the Route Development Fund, which was operated by the previous executive but discontinued, the Press and Journal reports.
The fund was originally set up to encourage growth in the number of flights in and out of Scotland.
It provided more than £14 million over three years and helped establish a connection between Glasgow and Dubai, as well as UK services including a flight from Inverness Airport to Nottingham/East Midlands Airport.
As well as asking for the renewal of the fund, Mr Riddle predicted that the coming summer could be a positive one for Scottish tourism as British people take domestic holidays to save money.
"As you look out to the world economic climate, obviously we are seeing a pressure, a nervousness about the economy generally," he said.
"And I think one of the things that will arise from that nervousness will be people considering staying closer to home for holidays."
Posted by Graham Greenaway on the 09/05/2008 12:37:18 | More news from FHR
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Jon said on 10/05/2008 10:56:24
The Scottish Route Development fund should not be brought back, it was a complete farce. The MSP’s used it as a tool to get airlines to move away from Glasgow where the market is and to Edinburgh where the easy money in subsidies is. Only one route from Glasgow received government funding while over 20 got funding from Edinburgh, with only one of them routes lasting past the time funding ended. The best way to get more new routes into Scotland is force BAA to sell Glasgow International Airport.
Rosemary Jeynes said on 14/05/2008 09:00:33
It is essential that we attract more visitors from abroad especially now as far as Europe is concerned with the rate of exchange. If we opened more routes to our Scottish airports it would bebeneficial t all sides. We need to also attract visitors from Englnad and Wales to come as it is cheaper to stay in one's own country (UK) than travel abroad. Activity holidays are on the increase as a result of the concerns over sunbathing. Why do we not make more of issues to attract people here. i would also like to point out that we need to bring more visitors into the middle of Scotland where there is no air link as the congestion to get over the Forth Road Bridge is a great barrier to coming into Fife. Why can we not expand the potential of Dundee airport?