The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Businessman warns of city trade loss due to delayed flights
Dundee: Call for improvements to air travel linking Tayside to London
A leading Dundee businessman has warned lack of investment in key travel links could see the city miss out on vital trade.
Paul Durrant, chief executive of the UK Games Fund, called for major improvements to flights connecting the city with other industry hubs.
The business development specialist, whose company was set up to help support the UK gaming industry, was on a Stansted-bound flight on Tuesday when a mechanical issue meant he was delayed for around an hour.
Mr Durrant claimed it was just the latest in a long line of issues with the service and said the incident was indicative of a much wider problem.
He said: “I’ve been using this flight a couple of times each month for a number of years now and there are regularly issues. It’s a terrible introduction to Dundee and gives off a bad impression of how the city operates. “The reality now is that with the Queensferry Crossing opening, many will simply opt to fly for London meetings from Edinburgh instead.
“That will make the route less sustainable and means we could lose it altogether. I think that would be very damaging for Dundee.”
He confirmed he had cancelled all future travel from Dundee Airport for his firm and warned others could be forced follow suit.
Alison Henderson, CEO of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, said the quality of transport in and out of the city is a “very important issue” for industries looking to invest. She said: “The Dundee to London route is absolutely vital for the city and businesses are very keen to maintain this link.”
Loganair chief operations officer Maurice Boyle defended the company’s record on reliability and said more than three-quarters of flights on the service had arrived within their targeted arrival period over the past three months.
He added: “We would like that to be higher, but the fault lies mostly with air traffic control restrictions in the London area.
“We have spoken at length with National Air Traffic Services over this issue, and they have assured us that we are not the only carrier suffering delays, and that they are monitoring the issue.”