PROFESSOR Lesley's letter (February 3) resurrects the concept of a single Lowland airport serving the south of Scotland.
I had thought that the Stirling or Falkirk international airport idea had been swept away some 15 years ago after a less than sophisticated national debate, mostly through the letters section of The Herald, which concluded that the massive costs (who would pay?) together with land acquisition and environmental issues deemed this romantic notion a non-starter.
Professor Lesley's assumption that a massive new, state-of-the art Scottish airport would somehow take on the Manchesters of this world seems on the face of it attractive. However, what he does not factor into his thinking is the stranglehold on Scottish aviation growth held by BAA plc.
He also overlooks the fact that there is already a large, well-run airport with a railway station linked to its check-in desks, 40 minutes by rail from Glasgow Central station.
The project of national significance which demonstrates Scotland's commitment to reduce car travel, which Professor Lesley calls for, is already in place serving all of Scotland and beyond.
John Baillie,
Marketing Manager,
Glasgow Prestwick International
Airport Ltd, Aviation House, Prestwick.
February 6.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article