Flights from Scotland set to soar as airlines expand
ALASTAIR DALTON TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
SCOTLAND looks set for a series of new direct air routes to Europe.
Scandinavian airline SAS, which launched two new services to Stockholm on Sunday, is examining links between Edinburgh and Oslo, and Aberdeen and Copenhagen, while routes from Glasgow are also under consideration.
Ryanair said it was looking at further expansion from Prestwick, with possible routes to Pisa in Italy, Malmo in Sweden and a second German route to join its Frankfurt service.
And BMI announced plans for a new service, by its BMI Regional arm, between Aberdeen and Groningen in the Netherlands from 4 May, taking the number of routes operated from the Granite City to six.
Jonathan Charles Ashman, SAS’s UK passenger sales manager, said the airline planned to develop links from Scotland to its Scandinavian hubs for onward connections to countries such as Finland and Estonia. He said: "There is potential for an Aberdeen-Copenhagen service, along with Edinburgh-Oslo."
Ashman added Finland was an important market from Scotland, but SAS had no plans for direct flights as there was unlikely to be sufficient demand.
An Oslo route would pitch SAS into direct competition with Duo, which has said that its service, launched in November, is its busiest from Edinburgh. Ryanair launched services between Prestwick and Stockholm and Gothenburg last year, following the start of flights to Oslo in 2002.
Ashman added that Radisson SAS, a hotels’ subsidiary of the airline, was seeking to expand its three-strong Scottish chain, including to Aberdeen.
Loss-making SAS, which is jointly owned by Denmark, Norway and Sweden, last week struck a landmark deal with unions to clear the way for major restructuring plans. Europe’s fourth largest airline after Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa, will cut wages and reorganise its fleet to reduce the high cost of transferring staff between airports.
Michael Cawley, meanwhile, the deputy chief executive of Ryanair, said that popular European destinations from other airports were likely to form part of expansion at Prestwick. Services to Stornoway may also be considered.
But Cawley said Ryanair was seeking better incentives from airports operator BAA Scotland to launch routes from Aberdeen, which could include Milan, Germany and Scandinavia.
He said the airline was seeking longer deals than the two- to three-year offers available to match its 20-year investment in new aircraft. But Malcolm Robertson, a spokesman for BAA Scotland, which also owns Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, said it would not offer unrealistic airport charges that were insufficient for investment.
He said: "We are committed to creating conditions where airlines can operate profitable services, but we will do this on an economically sustainable basis. Dropping charges to unsustainable levels would play dangerous games with the Aberdeen economy