EDI-EWR "It's a sure thing".
Source: Sunday Times 19th. Aug 2001
THE American airline Continental is close to confirming the first transatlantic flights from Edinburgh airport in an important step forward in the growth of Scotland's international air links.
Details are being finalised for a daily flight between Edinburgh and Newark, New Jersey, to start next May, and an announcement is expected within weeks. A senior airline source said yesterday: "It's
a sure thing."
The deal is a political coup for Henry McLeish, first minister in the Scottish executive, over his Labour colleague Helen Liddell, the Scottish secretary.
Liddell had called a summit meeting of air industry chiefs for September 26 and was keen to take the lead in opening up new routes to Scots travellers, enticing more tourists to fly directly to Scottish airports instead
of arriving via London.
The regulation of aviation and air transport is the responsibility of the UK government.However, credit for landing such a significant new route is now likely to go to the first minister.
Continental's chief operating officer met McLeish and Sarah Boyack, the transport
minister, in March as part of the effort to clinch the project. Continental has not
had any meetings with Liddell or George Foulkes, her deputy.
VisitScotland, the Scottish executive's tourism agency, is expected to sweeten
the deal by providing marketing cash to help to promote the new route - although
there is some frustration among airline officials about the length of time it is
taking to confirm the amount of support.
The SNP yesterday welcomed news of the route, but urged the executive to ensure that delays in finalising the assistance package did not jeopardise the deal.
Continental is in the process of signing off its budgets for next year. A lengthy delay would reduce the amount of time available
to the airline to market the new route, reducing the success of
its launch.
"Continental is important to Scotland," said Kenny Mac-Askill, the SNP's enterprise spokesman.
"The executive must ensure that money is there to clinch this new link."
MacAskill also paid tribute to The Sunday Times' Fares Fair for Scotland campaign, which has been pushing since March for
more direct international air links from Scottish airports to attract tourists and open up new holiday opportunities for Scots.
In that time, government and opposition politicians have accelerated their efforts to encourage new links.
Recent months have seen a number of routes being announced, including BMI British Midland flights from Edinburgh to Brussels; Ryanair from Edinburgh to Dublin; and easyJet and ScotAirways flights to Amsterdam.
Continental executives have taken some persuading that Scotland needs an
additional transatlantic route on top of the airline's existing Glasgow-New York
service, which has attracted 350,000 passengers in the three years since it
was set up.
Bosses found it difficult to understand why some east coast business people
prefer to fly from Edinburgh to London and then across the Atlantic, rather than
drive 50 miles to Glasgow airport.
One factor that persuaded them of the route's viability was the number of declarations
of support from large Scottish firms, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and
Scottish Widows, committing their executives to using the service.
BAA, owner and operator of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports, played a
significant part in clinching the deal, offering discounted airport charges for a set period, freeing up check-in desks and also promising marketing support.
International route planners from Continental were in Scotland three weeks ago to
finalise arrangements.
Steve Craven, Scottish sales manager for Continental, yesterday issued an upbeat statement about the new route: "It's there
as a potential new route for next year. I'm confident it will happen."