Air services to Tayside and Fife could be saved by a link-up between Dundee Airport and Leuchars.
The Scottish Government’s scoping report on the future of Dundee Airport suggests Transport Scotland, the country’s national transport agency, and the Ministry of Defence should immediately open negotiations about using the base for commercial flights alongside Dundee.
The RAF is moving out of the site, which will become an army base in 2015.
The report states: “The relative merits of operating a joint facility at Leuchars may be something that Transport Scotland could explore privately with the MoD while these other short to medium term initiatives are being implemented, to see if this would result in material cost savings relative to the anticipated ongoing levels of subsidy required at Dundee.”
Suggestions that its runways could be used for commercial flights comes as MPs warn the loss of Dundee’s only current service, which flies to and from London City, could spell the end of the airport.
Angus MP Mike Weir claimed the airport was in danger of becoming trapped in a “self-defeating cycle”.
Dundee Airport receives £100 in subsidies for every passenger who uses it.
MPs are now calling on operators Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd to do more to attract other services to Dundee so that it can become financially sustainable.
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