MP Backs Wick Airport Go-It-Alone Proposal

MP Backs Wick Airport Go-It-Alone Proposal 
North Scotland Press and Journal, UK

29 December 2003 
  
Wick Airport users and supporters hoping to win the right to go it alone are 
being backed by shadow Liberal Democrat transport secretary John Thurso. 

The Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP claimed the airport is not being 
given a fair deal by Highlands and Islands Airports and could be run better as 
an independent operation with a subsidy direct from the Scottish Executive.

He is supporting the move in a letter to Scottish Transport Minister Nicol 
Stephen after receiving a "non-committal response" from Scottish Enterprise 
Minister Jim Wallace.

He said: "There is a feeling that because it is part of HIAL - who seem more 
interested in running Inverness and the airports in the islands - that Wick 
always gets the short end of the straw."

Lord Thurso claimed this had meant that a cross-runway, vital to continuous 
working because the airport is subject at times to strong cross-winds - had 
been allowed to deteriorate to the point where it was no longer safe for use by 
planes in public service.

It is also short of modern facilities for handling passengers and has failed to 
stimulate a twice-a-day, in-and-out, morning and evening service to a hub 
airport with connections to the south and abroad.

The MP said he believed the airport could be better, cheaper and more 
effectively run by a co-operative of current users, the local community and 
Highland Council.

He was supported by John Bannister, the owner of Ackergill Tower, one of 
Scotland's foremost high-level conference centres, which has itself brought in 
chartered traffic direct to Wick from Moscow, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Oslo.

Stressing he was speaking personally, Mr Bannister, chairman of Wick Airport 
Consultative Committee, said he fully supported the idea, complaining that for 
10 years Wick had hardly featured in HIAL's capital programme.

He said: "There has been absolutely no consultation on what investment should 
be made at Wick and how it should be done."

Mr Bannister said tighter security measures for airlines had meant senior 
executives from important companies had had to allow security staff to rifle 
through their belongings in front of fellow passengers.

An X-ray machine capable of doing the job more efficiently like those in use at 
other airports had been "sitting in Aberdeen waiting for HIAL to release the 
funds for somewhere to house it" - despite his own offer to supply a temporary 
portable structure so it could be used meanwhile.

He said: "I am confident that if we had our share of the total finance 
available to HIAL we could do a huge amount more."

He said every morning saw a column of cars speed down inadequate roads to 
Inverness so executives could catch planes because none were available at Wick.

 
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