HIAL's first priority should be to communities such as Wick
Holyrood Notebook by Ariane Burgess
The Scottish Green Party has a reputation for standing in opposition to the aviation industry. To a large extent, it’s a justified reputation.
The industry has contributed significantly to climate change, there’s currently no viable way to decarbonise it and, on a global scale, it’s a very small number of people who make the most use of air travel.
However, the importance of small-scale lifeline services for rural and island communities has always been recognised by my party.
In sharp contrast to the large commercial airlines, the kind of services that used to operate from Wick John O’Groats were important for the local community and made a comparatively minuscule contribution to carbon emissions.
When it comes to air travel, airports like Wick are a world apart from Heathrow.
Councillor Raymond Bremner, the recently appointed chair of the Wick John O’Groats Airport Consultative Committee, has an important job on his hands when it comes to making Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL), as well as other stakeholders, understand the needs of the community and act accordingly. I wish him the very best of luck in this position.
One of the reasons I fear Councillor Bremner has a hard job ahead of him is that recently HIAL have shown a deep intransigence and unwillingness to listen to the communities they serve, which has led directly to industrial action by its staff.
The dispute stems from HIAL’s widely unpopular plans to centralise its air traffic control services in Inverness and remove full air traffic control services entirely from Wick. Instead the airport will have an Aerodrome Flight Information Service, a significant downgrade for the airport.
These are not encouraging signs for HIAL’s future plans for Wick and you would be forgiven for thinking that they had simply given up on the site. That’s why the Prospect union workers who have been taking industrial action against the centralisation plans have my full support.
It’s worth remembering that HIAL is not a private body, it is wholly owned by the Scottish Government and entirely accountable to them. In a very real sense it belongs to us. It’s first priority should therefore always be serving communities.
So why then is it insisting on following through with a plan that will put a dent in rural employment, ignoring community opposition to the plans and taking the legs out from under Wick airport as it tries to recover from one of the most challenging periods in its history?
In response to the latest ballot on industrial action by Prospect members, HIAL issued a statement expressing disappointment at the result, suggesting it will “impact our passengers, the communities we serve, and our airlines at a time when we are beginning to see confidence in air travel return and passenger numbers increasing across all of our airports”.
I would suggest that significantly downgrading an airport and harming the rural economy will have a far greater impact on passengers and communities in the long term than workers fighting for their jobs.
Ultimately the argument here is about power and ownership. HIAL is a publicly owned body acting like a private corporation.
Communities who should have a meaningful say in the future of their lifeline services have been ignored throughout the entire process. HIAL's workers are taking action for their jobs, but they’re also taking a stand for their communities.
- Ariane Burgess is a Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands.