Wick
Eastern have now pulled out of Wick. Loganair left a few months ago
Anyone have thoughts on the future of Wick airport ? Will there be a PSO to keep a passenger service ?
Anyone have thoughts on the future of Wick airport ? Will there be a PSO to keep a passenger service ?
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I visited Wick last year and thought it was a great little airport with a modern terminal. Next to no one lives in the catchment area though so even in the good times the passenger traffic was only ever light.
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Very first time I flew. Wick to Kirkwall in a DC3, 1952 or 3, so I was 7/8. Part of a journey from Inverness to Whalsay in Shetland by car, plane and boats. Since it was midsummer, daylight the whole way from 4am to after 11.
The population of Caithness is still about 40k, but of course its heyday was when Dounreay was active.
The population of Caithness is still about 40k, but of course its heyday was when Dounreay was active.
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davidjohnson6
Local politicians and business groups have been calling for routes to Aberdeen and Edinburgh to be covered by PSOs by the Scottish Government, but I've not seen anything to indicate the SG's view on these requests.
The FBO, Far North Aviation, has a steady stream of ferry flights stopping for fuel, though I don't know if that traffic alone would be sufficient to maintain a slimmed-down operation.
As mentioned above, the airport has also, as recently as 2018, been visited by USAF C17s removing nuclear waste from Dounreay. Whether there are to be any more of those flights I don't know, but if there are then that might be a reason for at least keeping the airfield in a state that could see it be made available for such flights.
(As an aside, HIAL commissioned AECOM to assess the runways for C17 use. However, anything appearing to relate to details of the C17 operations has been redacted. I've too few posts to allow me to post a link, but Googling 'wick, C17, theferret.scot' should find it.)
Local politicians and business groups have been calling for routes to Aberdeen and Edinburgh to be covered by PSOs by the Scottish Government, but I've not seen anything to indicate the SG's view on these requests.
The FBO, Far North Aviation, has a steady stream of ferry flights stopping for fuel, though I don't know if that traffic alone would be sufficient to maintain a slimmed-down operation.
As mentioned above, the airport has also, as recently as 2018, been visited by USAF C17s removing nuclear waste from Dounreay. Whether there are to be any more of those flights I don't know, but if there are then that might be a reason for at least keeping the airfield in a state that could see it be made available for such flights.
(As an aside, HIAL commissioned AECOM to assess the runways for C17 use. However, anything appearing to relate to details of the C17 operations has been redacted. I've too few posts to allow me to post a link, but Googling 'wick, C17, theferret.scot' should find it.)
Last edited by Link Kilo; 20th Jun 2020 at 17:07.
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I think these C17 flights are now finished. Regarding the PSO appeal to scottish government. I would say given the rural area and poor road and rail network it should be in with a good chance. As I've said on here before if Dundee can get it, a city with good road and rail links to aberdeen, edinburgh and glasgow then I can't see how Wick can't. I think a case was put forward to the Government this week so time will tell.Also the loss of many jobs in the area if the airport was to close would be devistaing. Only a helicopter based at the airport now which serves the Beatrice off shore wind farm.
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Isn't the whole point of PSOs offering better access for travel related to either business or public services? While Dundee has better access to EDI, it also has much more to offer in that regard. I don't really see why WIC would justify that, but maybe some local folks here have better insight. What was the typical clientele using the WIC flights more recently (which had seen passenger numbers drop by third over just 3 or 4 years)? I used (rather: tried to use) it once but it was leisure travel obviously not justifying taxpayer money spent on it. I took the train from Inverness and planned to return to EDI by plane, connecting to LON from there. Alas, fog and I ended on a coach that drove me to INV from where I got on a plane. Not terribly convenient, but certainly the alternative the taxman has in mind when consinderig spending money on a PSO, given the expansion of services from INV over the past few years (that was - before BE's collapse).
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Just went on to their website to see that Wick has been removed from the drop down menu. Was hoping it was temporary.
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SealinkBF
I'm afraid not Sealink Check in staff paid off last friday. I think the future looks pretty bleak for the airport and the county not to mention all the staff that work there Fire Brigade, Security Staff, ATC etc.
Changed days from 2 years ago when eastern had a early morning and late evening return flights
I'm afraid not Sealink Check in staff paid off last friday. I think the future looks pretty bleak for the airport and the county not to mention all the staff that work there Fire Brigade, Security Staff, ATC etc.
Changed days from 2 years ago when eastern had a early morning and late evening return flights
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Multi-million-pound plan to bring new routes to Wick Airport
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It should be.. its in line with other PSO funded routes. There's a handy table available here that shows them all: https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites...tory_table.pdf
But to summarise:
Kirkwall - Westray/Papa Westray/Sanday etc - £178,000-£195,000
Newquay - Heathrow = £700,000
Glagow - Barra/Campbeltown/Tiree - £1,300,000 - £1,800,000
Cardiff - RAF Valley - £2,000,000
But to summarise:
Kirkwall - Westray/Papa Westray/Sanday etc - £178,000-£195,000
Newquay - Heathrow = £700,000
Glagow - Barra/Campbeltown/Tiree - £1,300,000 - £1,800,000
Cardiff - RAF Valley - £2,000,000
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It would be important to discover where people need to fly to, which may not be where they used to in the past. After all my very first flight was in 1951 from Wick to Kirkwall in a DC3!
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Still can’t ignore the fact that there is almost no demand for air travel from Wick so I wonder what the subsidies will be per passenger? Great little airport with an almost empty terminal when I watched an arrival and departure 3 years ago.