Flypuppy:
I heard that HIAL were wanting to run services to GLA & EDI
They'd have to acquire or at least operate the airfield first and the Scottish Exec have already been warned off that option by a hugely negative reaction from aviators when it was first rumoured.
BlueEagle:
The viability of some kind of schedule for Oban was looked at a number of times but <snip> no service ever got off the ground
Probably before and after your time with LC but there was a Loganair schedule Glasgow-Oban-Mull 1967-68 and again 1975-76. Mainly Islanders but I think they also put Trislanders on when it got busy.
What's currently proposed is a multi-million redevelopment of Oban, Coll and Colonsay largely at European taxpayers expense, with a view to a scheduled service by Islander from Oban to the islands. However there is no indication that any airline wants to operate such a service nor that the islanders (at least on Colonsay) actually want a new airstrip or a scheduled service.
The consultants who drew up the report on the feasibility of licensing Oban actually proposed scheduled Jetstream operations off an 1100 metre runway which has a 760ft hill at 1nm final for runway 19 and which could never have an instrument approach procedure.
I'm just back from a flying weekend in Colonsay. Very nice it was too as long as you steer round the sheep and the rabbit holes.
NS