Concern over fragility of air links to Wick

A LEADING business voice in the far north has raised serious concerns about the fragility of air links to Wick amid growing evidence that a lack of confidence in reliability has left people abandoning public transport.

Eann Sinclair, programme manager of Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership, took his message to Highland Council’s planning committee in Inverness.

While heralding the resilience and ingenuity of Caithness as the Dounreay plant is dismantled, he clearly feels air-link angst could damage optimism.

Mr Sinclair told councillors: “We’re currently experiencing some issues with air connectivity in and out of Wick John O’Groats Airport. Those services remain fragile.

“We’re working as partners to anticipate and to try and understand what the impacts might be of any further changes in that connectivity. We cannot afford for our flight connectivity to slip.”

Expanding on the comments after the meeting, he said: “There’ll potentially be a tipping point where, as the frequency of services changes and even the timings of services change, fewer and fewer people will choose to use Wick airport – for reasons of reliability.

“It either doesn’t get you there when you want to be there or you have to do an ‘overnight’ because there’s not a day-return possible.

“For oil and gas workers, you used to be able to fly out first thing on a Monday and fly back in late on a Friday. That’s changing.”

Asked if people are simply resorting to car use, he said: “Yes.”

Marking the partnership’s first decade in business, he celebrated the creation of more than 1000 jobs and £150 million of new investment in local infrastructure.

A spokesman for Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd said: “Wick John O’Groats remains an important part of our group of airports.

“We continue to work with our stakeholders there, including airlines, on a number of different topics including air services. These services are provided by the airlines and are subject to commercial considerations.

“Ultimately, any decision on these services is for the airlines to make. We remain committed to securing long-term, sustainable connectivity for the communities we serve.”

In a statement, the council made it clear it fully supports the efforts of the Caithness Transport Forum and Wick John O’Groats Airport Consultative Committee to improve flight connectivity.

Both organisations are pressing for investigation work into the potential for a Public Service Obligation (PSO) to be created on one of the flight routes.

A PSO is an obligation imposed on an organisation by legislation to provide a service within the EU.

The planning committee welcomed the recent news of funding for the proposed Sutherland spaceport.

Committee chairman Allan Henderson said: “We’re pleased to continue supporting the partnership.

“This is a very promising time for the Sutherland and Caithness areas as there is new opportunity for highly skilled jobs being created.

“Tourism, education and other associated industries may also benefit positively from the creation of the launch site.”

The council is among nine partners of the CNSRP, which was set up as an informal partnership of the main bodies with an economic and socio-economic remit in the Caithness and Sutherland area.

The partnership’s recently appointed chairman Ian Ross said: “Clearly there is still more to do but we can readily see that a number of projects are at an advanced stage of development and will deliver new jobs and even greater economic security.

“I’m still at an early stage in my new role but I’m committed to making myself available to partners and other parties who’d like to talk to me.”