Hot off the press from the latest Corncrake Magazine:
NO TAKE-OFF YET FOR AIR SERVICE
Well, we had high hopes of being able to bring to you, in this Issue, news of the commencement of our long-awaited air service. Alas, it is not to be, but, if all reports in the Press are to be believed, the three airstrips at Colonsay, Coll and Connell have at last received their necessary Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) licences (although, worryingly, an apparently reliable source has suggested that this might not actually be the case).
A catalogue of hold-ups has marred the progress of the project, and Argyll and Bute Council recently admitted that, over the last few months, it had run up a bill of over £300,000, for the "operational" costs of the service which has yet to actually take off. These running costs continue to mount daily, as Highland Airways, resident fire-fighting staff and airport staff at each airstrip have to be paid. Now however, the three final stumbling blocks to take-off have been overcome, according to Councillor Duncan MacIntyre, transport spokesman for the Council. CAA instructions state that airport fire engines have to be garaged and one of the last hurdles was the fact that the machines did not fit the purpose-built facility. But Mr MacIntyre said: "We have bought a hangar for them, the CAA required a fuel audit, which they now have, and trees have now been trimmed, as instructed."
Hopefully, by the time we hit the ether again in the middle of June, there will at last be good news to relate.