Is Dundee Airport’s link to the UK capital really not important to the city and its economic prospects?
That was certainly the impression given if you took Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce’s Voice of Business Survey at face value.
Just 40% of respondents said the current Loganair/FlyBe service to London Stansted was important to the running of their business.
This is the same service previously described as “vital” by Dundee’s waterfront development mastermind Mike Galloway and which has long been promoted as key to the development of Dundee’s academic and economic ambitions.
So why such a lukewarm response from DACC members?
Well I suspect the relatively low response rate received only around one in eight of the 400 or so businesses given the chance to participate actually took part may be instructive in itself.
But I think the key here is the types of businesses which filled in the questionnaire.
DACC’s membership is predominantly made up of small firms employing a handful of people.
Such companies are the bedrock of the local and national economy and have done a phenomenal job in keeping Scotland and the UK afloat during the rocky times we have just negotiated.
But I can certainly see why the maintenance of an air link to London may not be at the top of the priority list of a small bakery company in Angus or a small joinery or building outfit plying its trade in Dundee.
Of those who did respond to a question asking how they would like to see the airlink developed, there were concerns over the perceived high cost of the Dundee flight compared to easily accessible services from the Central Belt, the suitability of Stansted as a destination and the supposed irregularity of the 22-flight a week service.
Those are all issues that I recognise and, by and large, would like to see overcome.
But in my opinion a direct airlink from Dundee to a global economic powerhouse like London is and always will be vital to the city’s long-term economic prospects.
It may not be the be all and end all for firm’s operating on a small scale hoping to attract and retain a local market, but there is a wider vision and ambition piece to be taken into account here.
Of the same 53 respondents to the DACC survey, 60% of them said they expected the £1 billion transformation of the city’s waterfront to have an impact on their business.
And they are right if the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the flagship V&A Dundee design museum should transpire as expected the city will be a place transformed and so will many of its businesses.
Tourism is already a cornerstone of the local economy but it will only become more important.
Transport links to major destinations will be key to ensure that people can flow in and out of the city with ease and the loss of an established air route to the UK capital however small scale it may be at the moment would be a retrograde step. The loss of the air link would also be bad for business in the region.
Our medium-sized and larger companies need to be connected to the wider world if they are to have any hope of growing and developing their offer.
The universities require those same links and, crucially, inward investors the people that Dundee needs to help populate the myriad new office and shops spaces within the waterfront complex will be looking closely at transport links to and from Dundee as part of their business development plans.
The current single scheduled service air route from Dundee is certainly not perfect and there is definitely a debate to be had about how air links from this region and north east Fife are developed on a coherent and commercial viable basis.
But in my opinion, an established air link to London IS important to Dundee, Angus and wider city region and it is something we should cherish rather than ignore.ghuband@thecourier.co.uk