By Brian Smith, aviation reporter

NEWQUAY HAS just begun scheduled air services to Manchester, flights between Wick and Aberdeen have been increased and there is even a scheduled air service between the Isle of Man and Paris—all introduced this year—yet Dundee has failed to attract a single new route despite years of trying. Why?

Money is available from the Scottish Executive to develop new routes and there is a proven market for air travel from Dundee with around 50,000 a year using ScotAirways London City schedules.

Bottlenecks en route to the nearest rivals, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, add so much time to journeys many travellers with a morning departure now opt for an overnight stay at a hotel rather than face ridiculously early starts or nerve-wracking waits in traffic jams.

In spite of these factors, a few months of a service to Manchester, before it was withdrawn, is the only time Dundee has managed direct services to more than one destination and there is no immediate prospect of change.

All concerned insist it is not for the want of effort and while words like “puzzle” and frustration” are spoken by those charged with promoting the airport at Riverside and the facility’s supporters, there remains a firm belief that new routes with accessible fares can be achieved.

Stan Ure, business development manager with Dundee City Council’s economic development department, which is responsible for the airport, said the whole business of running an airport over the past five years had become a great deal more complex.

Issues relating to the technical requirements imposed on the site at Dundee by the Civil Aviation Authority, strategic decisions by major and regional airlines and just the small number of airlines with the type of aircraft that can operate from Dundee had all played a role in thwarting attempts to introduce more services.

He said that officials are “constantly tackling” the CAA to maximise the capacity of the airport.

He said, “Over the past few years many of the major airlines have withdrawn from regional routes and we have faced the problem of the regional airlines understandably choosing to take over routes established by the likes of British Airways or Air France, rather than develop new routes of their own.

“If these new regional carriers are to develop, as they must, they are becoming more development orientated and are looking for new niche markets.

“There are a couple of candidates that come into this category. We have a meeting with one next month and are trying to arrange a meeting with another around the same time. What these airlines are capable of doing is running a low cost service.”

He pointed out that the Scottish Executive development fund for new routes only becomes available once an airline has expressed an interest in a route.

Dundee has come agonisingly close and has had an undertaking from the Executive to provide backing for a new route but the airline concerned chose not to proceed.

He added, “I am absolutely confident the route development fund would assist any new route coming out of Dundee. They are really keen to assist us, to help get new services.”

He said the council has prepared fully worked up business plans showing the potential market from Dundee to a variety of destinations including Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast, Dublin, Amsterdam and a number of others.

Not content with the work put in so far, a former general manager of an international airport has been recruited to look at what has been done to date to see, Mr Ure said, “if more could be done, if more should be done.”

He said, “We are as concerned as anybody else and understand the public desire to see additional scheduled services from Dundee.”

He said the airport continues to be a useful tool in the economic regeneration of the city and adds credibility to efforts to attract new employers and sustain existing employers.

A two pronged strategy for continued development is being pursued, with growth in commercial and business jet usage, the other part of the plan.

In one week recently, income from business jet and commercial usage matched that from the scheduled service, underlining its potential.

Mr Ure said, “I am convinced there is considerable potential to develop scheduled services. It is an enormous disappointment and frustration to us all that we have not managed to do it but there are sound reasons to be optimistic.”

The chief executive of Dundee and Tayside Chamber of Commerce, Mervyn Rolfe, himself a former economic development convener, is equally convinced it has a future.

He said, “The mindset among airlines seems to be that there are only three, maybe four, airports in Scotland—Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and possibly Inverness.

“There is a role for the travelling public in Dundee in changing this view. It needs to put pressure on the airlines, to make them understand the difficulties of travelling from Aberdeen or Edinburgh and be more customer focused.

“I think we will get additional destinations even though it is taking frustratingly long.”