Inverness Airport: How connected with Scotland?
February 24, 2009 · Filed Under Transport
Looking around this week, I’m having a lot of difficulty in finding any airlines that fly Inverness to Glasgow.
In fact, looking to Scotland’s major airports, the only flight I can find from Inverness is single daily flight to and from Edinburgh.
I know Inverness Airport is a small regional, and therefore will have limited services – but I really would have thought Inverness Airport would be better able to connect with Scotland’s major airports?
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I’ve noticed that, too and it does seem like a gap. I expect, however, that the probable requirement to check-in well ahead of departure when flying to larger airports, even in Scotland, because of security considerations, is a disincentive when one can ‘let the train take the strain’, city centre to city centre, in not much more time overall.
… I could see it being of use, though, for connecting flights from Glasgow or Edinburgh – but then one can just fly to one of the London airports and get a much larger range of onward flights than the two major Scottish airports are ever like to offer.
It’s more for Scottish business meeting across the cities – I had a client meeting in Edinburgh yesterday, and found only a single flight from Inverness, which offered an extremely restrictive window for a meeting.
So instead I had to go by train – which ended up as 9-10 travelling time, including significant delays on the way back.
In business terms, it kind of gives the message that Inverness doesn’t need to do business with the other major Scottish cities, which is kind of dangerous.
Sure, I appreciate that the flight routes are subject to market forces, but it’s worth considering what the Scottish government could do to better incentivise such connections.
I know some people may react with horror at my suggestion of additional flights considering pollution issues, but I think a) airlines are unfairly demonised in terms of emissions, b) Scotland to Scotland flights would generate limited emissions anyway, c) Scotland has a large amount of renewal energy development to offset, e) further development of renewable industries in Scotland could benefit from better transport links to help these develop.
2c.