The number of passengers using Inverness Airport has dropped by more than 7,000 in the last year, it emerged yesterday.
And last night senior management at Highlands and Islands Airports blamed the controversial withdrawal of flights between the Highland capital and London Heathrow.
Despite the airport recording its busiest-yet month in July, Hial’s figures show that the running total of passengers for this year has plunged by 7,206 – from 264,038 to 256,832 – compared with last year.
Bmi scrapped its flights between Inverness and Heathrow in March, blaming an increase in taxes faced by airlines, combined with a lack of passengers.
Business leaders and politicians said the statistics proved the link should be reinstated.
North Lib Dem MP Danny Alexander said: “Despite that loss, it is encouraging that passenger numbers are still up significantly for July, compared with the same month last year.
“It is vital to the future of tourism in particular that our airport has top-quality facilities which can cope well with higher numbers at the peak of the season.
“The scale of the impact needs to be monitored across a longer period, but I will continue to press for a Heathrow service to be reinstated and for the regular link to Gatwick to be safeguarded.”
He added the announcement yesterday that BAA may be forced to sell Gatwick underlines the need for both the Scottish and UK governments to secure the landing slots needed for “economically vital regional links”.
SNP MSP Fergus Ewing said it was inevitable that the loss of the link would be “damaging”, especially to tourism. He added: “Sadly the government in London, who are responsible for aviation, failed to lift a finger to protect the Heathrow link to Inverness.
“Had they done so early on then we would not have separated from much of the rest of the world in this way.”
Scottish Council for Development and Industry Highlands and islands manager Gareth Williams said it was “good news” that passenger numbers were holding up well to Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester.
But he added: “This does serve to underline the importance of regaining the Heathrow route and supporting the increased capacity at Heathrow, and also of developing new direct inter-
national air routes from Inverness, such as the planned Lufthansa service.”
Despite the fall at Inverness, 468,809 passengers have used Hial’s 10 airports in the first four months of the year, an 1.8% increase on last year.
Managing director Inglis Lyon said: “We have to recognise that this winter will be a challenging one for airlines and airports. The priority is to maintain our links with comparable volumes of passengers to last year.”