There have been few issues I have written about this year which have provoked more of a reaction than the trials and tribulations of Dundee Airport.
There are those in the ‘love it’ camp TV personality Lorraine Kelly is a regular user and those firmly ensconced in the ‘loathe it’ category who think the Riverside facility is nothing but a gigantic waste of taxpayers’ cash.
The announcement this week that Dundee’s last remaining scheduled service a flight directly connecting the City of Discovery with the UK capital is to be axed provoked a further slew of ‘save it’, ‘shut it’ ‘what about Leuchars?’ cries from the various sides of the debate.
Through the columns of this newspaper I have tracked the highs and lows of Dundee Airport over more than a decade, and I have faced flak from those who perceived the slant of some of my stories to be negative.
But, to be clear, I come down on the pro-airport side of the fence.
Dundee has transformed itself in recent years from a city mired in post-industrial decline to one of the genuinely most go-ahead and driven city region economies in Scotland, if not the United Kingdom.
The city is progressing landmark projects such as the V&A design museum and the waterfront, and has an appetite for change that I have seldom seen matched elsewhere.
There is a real desire for the city to be better connected with the outside world, and the closure or mothballing of the airport would do nothing to promote that worthy cause.
In today’s 24-hour digital world, if you are not plugged in and part of the worldwide economic game then you risk being sidelined and forgotten.
Dundee Airport is a vital economic artery for the city, and cutting it off altogether would open an economic wound that could continue to bleed for generations.
That cannot be allowed to happen.
Scottish Government agency Highlands & Islands Airports Ltd has received millions of pounds from the taxpayer to run the Dundee facility.
Sadly, HIAL’s stint at the driving seat of Dundee Airport has been characterised by decline rather than progress.
Not all of the blame for the sorry state of affairs can be laid at HIAL’s door previous management regimes have also struggled to put the facility on the map but the fact is the situation has become critical on its watch.
HIAL has a short space of time in which to prove it is providing value for the taxpayer by demonstrating its executives are not simply entrenched in its corporate headquarters in Inverness.
They must prove they have the stomach to fight for Dundee’s future.
HIAL needs to bring forward a comprehensive and costed action plan for Dundee Airport, set out timescales for delivery and action them.
The Riverside facility is not of a size to rival Edinburgh or Glasgow airports but, managed correctly and marketed appropriately, it does have the capacity to play a key role in Tayside’s economic future.
That is a prize worth holding out for.