North business leaders have been told that hopes of resurrecting flights between the Highlands and Heathrow hinge on the London terminal getting a third runway.
Senior airport directors were in Inverness yesterday to encourage the region’s companies to lobby for the extra runway to provide more flights to regional airports.
Local business leaders called for immediate action on reinstating the crucial link, with one claiming the lack of direct flights to Heathrow was “tying the hands” of the region’s economy.
The plea was made days after the new easyJet flights between Inverness and London Gatwick were launched, preserving a daily return to the UK capital which was saved by a campaign led by the Press and Journal.
Flights between Inverness and Heathrow stopped in the mid-1990s, and the director of sustainability at Heathrow, Matt Gorman, said: “The challenge we face at the moment is that Heathrow is full, which means any airline wanting to access is having to wait for a long time to get slots to do that.
“At the moment we have around 480,000 flights annually and with the third runway we would have 700,000, which is a significant increase in capacity.
“We think that as well as connecting to long-haul destinations some of that capacity should be used to connect to the UK regions.
“The key message for the businesses here is that if you value that link it’s really important that you lobby here for that link between Heathrow and Inverness.”
Stewart Nicol, chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, said: “Lack of capacity at Heathrow is tying the hands of the Highland economy and the loss of direct links to the UK’s only hub airport is damaging for the global connectivity of our region.
“Inverness chamber members want to see action now to connect Highland business and protect the UK’s competitive position. It is vital that we have air services that meet the needs of our exporting and tourism businesses both now and in the long term.
“We know we’re losing about 50,000 journeys a year to other Scottish airports from Inverness and they would come back, and we would see also see a marked inflow from tourists and businesses from across the globe.”
He said the chamber would “keep up the pressure and lobby” for a third runway at Heathrow.