Dundee is to lose one of its links to London, with airline CityJet poised to axe a weekly return flight amid a string of timetable alterations.
Monday’s 12 noon departure from Riverside is to be scrubbed from the schedules, with an early morning shuttle linking the Thames and the Tay also rescheduled until later in the day.
And weekday return services from the UK capital will be moved from their present late afternoon slot to mid-mornings, The Courier understands.
Bizarrely, the changes were revealed by an angry Lorraine Kelly on Twitter before any public statement was made by CityJet.
“Just found out that from nov 1st no more afternoon flights to dundee from London,” she wrote. “Service cut back again very shortsighted. Not happy.”
In response, several of the Broughty Ferry breakfast telly star’s 450,000 followers bemoaned the poor range of services available from Dundee and called into question the future of the site.
That prompted Dundee Airport to tweet a letter from HIAL chief executive Inglis Lyon, stressing that flight schedules were not determined by the airport.
“Flight schedules are determined by airlines, based on a number of factors including forecast passenger demand and aircraft availability,” he said.
“As an airport operator, HIAL does not decide when flights should operate, nor do we set the cost of airline tickets. These are entirely commercial matters for airlines.
“Nevertheless, HIAL has worked closely with CityJet and continues to support this important route in a number of ways.”
The changes, which come into force on October 27, create a uniform weekday schedule with departures from Dundee at 8.20am and 6.25pm and return flights leaving London City at 10.30am and 8.25pm five days a week. Weekend services remain unchanged with one flight each way on both Saturday and Sunday.
CityJet failed to respond to repeated requests for comment last night.
The regional airline axed its Edinburgh to London City service in August, after deciding that the service was no longer “a commercially viable option”.
Meanwhile, parent Air France-KLM has revealed almost 3,000 job cuts as part of a restructuring project it has dubbed Transform 2015. The Paris-headquartered group said cuts were required to return it to “equilibrium”.
Mr Lyon said Dundee’s efforts to attract and retain flights had been hampered by the impact of Air Passenger Duty, which is charged on both inbound and outbound flights from the Riverside base.
“APD disproportionately affects smaller regional airports and makes it difficult for airports such as Dundee to compete for new business,” Mr Lyon added. “With Scotland’s busiest airport, Edinburgh, within easy reach of Dundee, the challenge is even greater.
“We will continue to press the UK Government to do more to support airports such as Dundee.”