The managing director of Tayside Aviation has described a top Scottish economist’s recommendation that Dundee Airport should close as being as shortsighted as the Beeching rail cuts.
Jim Watt was responding to Tony Mackay’s call for the closure of Dundee Airport and the redistribution of state subsidies to other economic development projects in the city.
Mr Mackay based his argument on the low number of passengers using the airport, but Mr Watt said the volume of business was a part of the equation that the economist had ignored.
Tayside Aviation is based at Dundee Airport and is one of the UK’s leading flying schools. Its pilot training brings in more than £2 million a year.
Mr Watt said he regarded with dismay Mr Mackay’s comments, which came almost 50 years after Lord Beeching said much the same about Britain’s railways.
“I wonder what kind of rail network we would have today if we had looked at it more thoughtfully,” he said.
He continued: “The success of Dundee Airport cannot be measured purely in terms of passenger numbers. Dundee is actually one of Scotland’s busiest airports in terms of movements.
“Only this week 12 aircraft, including North Sea helicopters, had to divert to Dundee due to fog at Aberdeen. Some had declared fuel emergencies and their alternative would have been Wick.
“Tayside Aviation is the only flight school in the country trusted to train the RAF flying scholarship programme, teaching 200 RAF sponsored cadets each year. We also train more than 50 commercial pilots each year, who go on to fly with UK airlines.
“Through Tayside Aviation’s students alone, more than 4,500 bed-nights are taken up in Dundee hotels annually and 40 students a year begin three years in Dundee, renting, eating, sleeping and living here.
“More than £2 million per year goes into the local economy as a result.”
Mr Watt believed that Dundee businesses could do more to use the airport, and he called for an initiative to make it more sustainable.
Dundee Airport may cost money but he described it as a great asset as the city stands at the threshold of the new waterfront project.
At the Dundee Economic Summit two years ago, he recalled Dr Beatriz Plaza from Bilbao mentioning second-tier cities such as Dundee and Bilbao having much in common. Visitors to Bilbao had grown exponentially with the ‘Guggenheim effect’.
Mr Watt considered the heavily subsidised Dundee to London Stansted flights very cost-effective, and offered a better experience than fighting the traffic to Edinburgh or Glasgow Airports.