THE head of Glasgow Airport is confident the recent troubles at package holiday operators won't affect the fortunes of the transport hub, but warned greater support is needed in other areas.
Amanda McMillan told The Herald she is not concerned about the long-term future of dedicated tour operating businesses.
She recently met management at Thomas Cook and believes the company, struggling since turning to its banks for more financial backing in November last year, can survive and prosper.
At the moment, charter flights make up 23% of traffic at Glasgow with businesses including Thomas Cook, Thomson, Royal Caribbean, First Choice and Virgin Holidays.
Ms McMillan cited growing smaller companies like Barrhead Travel, which has chartered its own jets, and the decision by France Travel Services to offer holiday packages to Nantes, Lyon and Paris from Glasgow as examples of the sector's resilience. She said: "We all need to be mindful it is not a great economic backdrop.
"Thomas Cook is not naive enough to think the brand hasn't been tarnished to some extent but my hope is we move on from this quickly and celebrate the fact they are a great asset to Glasgow.
"Thomas Cook has a huge presence here, has invested here and has always been really passionate.
"When Globespan went bust, Thomas Cook immediately came in and increased capacity when others were more tentative.
"Then you have Barrhead, which has been really progressive in its thinking and can tailor the product to what the market wants."
However, Ms McMillan did admit to disappointment over the lack of movement on improvements to transport links to the airport. She believes access is a key issue for the long-term future of the airport, particularly as it has capacity to grow from handling the current seven million to 13 million passengers.
She said: "Running what I think is one of the major bits of infrastructure in Scotland and a huge economic driver, it would be very remiss of me not to rattle cages and remind everyone we need to look to the future.
"In the last three to four months, we have had a disappointing performance on the roads. There is a lot of maintenance going on but it highlights the lack of resilience we have in terms of egress and ingress to the airport. You cannot ignore the fact that we need to consider the future of the airport and its connections to the city. There needs to be a plan.
"The most disappointing thing for me, post the collapse of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, is that no plan B has emerged.
"That plan B could be a bus lane, as I'm not wedded to the idea of rail."
A further area of concern is the imminent increases in air passenger duty (APD) which will add extra tax to every flight, meaning greater incentives will be needed to attract airlines, particularly long-haul operators, to launch routes from Scotland. Ms McMillan also believes there could be a case for regional variation in APD, particularly as many airports in the south of England are at full capacity and are less likely to feel the impact of the new taxation regime.
She said: "APD is jeopardising the UK's success.
"One chief executive of an airline said to me he would be better announcing the leg of a journey from England to Scotland was free as he wasn't making any money on it.
"Airlines don't make emotional decisions. They look at spreadsheets and see where the most profitable routes are.
"For example, one of the Chinese carriers went into Charles De Gaulle recently rather than London, as the example given was a family of four would be £150 a head more expensive to come into the UK than Paris due to APD and visa costs.
"The reality is airlines are all making less money so new routes need to be incentivised even more.
"It's great to be ambitious and it is entirely appropriate we are having discussions about routes to BRIC countries as it would be a long lead in time. To secure a long-haul route would require a different backdrop of aviation policy.
"A long-haul carrier trying to start a new route will invariably make no money in the first two years and would invest a significant amount of money.
"For Scotland to attract that route would require significant route development support from the airport and Government to make it actually happen."
In recent months, Glasgow has been successful in attracting Emirates to run a second direct flight to Dubai and Sunwing to start a direct flight to Toronto.
However, Ms McMillan is adamant further investment is necessary for the airport to continue growing. She said: "The competition is fierce."
A new cafeteria, which will restore the view of the airfield, forms part of £9 mil- lion investment in infrastructure at the airport this year.
The arrival of additional fire vehicles and a revamping of the taxiway area are also scheduled.
Traffic figures for January showed a 0.4% drop in overall passengers to 416,300.
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