Public survey to determine why people are reluctant to fly via Wick airport
A SURVEY has been launched to find out why people in the far north or so reluctant to travel through Wick John O’Groats Airport.
Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP), along with Dounreay Site Restoration Limited and Highland and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) want to find out why people choose not to fly when travelling to Aberdeen or Edinburgh.
The aim of the survey is to assess what changes could be made to increase the number of passengers at Wick and to also understand the different attitudes people have when travelling for business or pleasure.
CNSRP programme manager Eann Sinclair said: "HIAL has already done a survey of people who are using the airport, so it’s an attempt to look at the other side of the coin.
"We want to know what kind of demographic is not using the airport and the reasons behind this.
"I don’t think that there are any pre-conceived ideas behind why people are not using the airport and I would hesitate to pre-judge what the results will come back as."
Mr Sinclair continued: "There are anecdotes about costs, timings and frequency and I would expect that these will all be reasons that will come back in varying degrees. But I am more interested in finding out how many people do respond and finding out what the real reasons are."
HIAL actually reported a nine per cent increase in passengers– from 26,482 to 28,876 – between April 2011 and March 2012 compared to the same period the previous year.
In the first six months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, passenger numbers also rose by 0.2 per cent to 13,572, up from 13,551.
A spokesman for HIAL said it was committed to working with local business and tourism groups to promote the far north as a business and leisure destination and to talking to airlines about the potential for new services.
He added: "Ultimately, decisions on route development are matters for individual airlines, based on a variety of economic factors and aircraft availability.
"We are actively engaging with other airlines to discuss possible future developments. Clearly, the wider economic climate remains a challenge but we are entirely focused on expanding the range of services from Wick John O’Groats and working with our airlines to promote their existing services."
Access the survey via www.surveymonkey.com/s/L6DQL2V