Could Oban have another Folly?

The nickname has stuck. Oban�s much-derided new airport has firmly established itself in the popular imagination as Macaskill International, in honour of its most passionate champion.

The nickname has stuck. Oban's much-derided new airport has firmly established itself in the popular imagination as Macaskill International, in honour of its most passionate champion.

Allan Macaskill, the former leader of Argyll and Bute Council, was earlier this year still forecasting that the "Hebridean Hub", as he calls the airfield, could one day have flights to the Continent.

Yesterday his council admitted it had now spent £8.5m on a project that was supposed to have cost little more than half as much.

Mr Macaskill retired ahead of last May's council elections. For most locals, however, the airport, at Connel, six miles from Oban itself, remains firmly his legacy.

Officials last month admitted they were now aiming to get the first scheduled flights off the ground in January, to the islands of Coll and Colonsay, which have also been given upgraded airstrips under the project.

The delay comes amid serious hold-ups in the process of licensing Oban and its two island satellites.

Licensing problems, however, shouldn't have come as a surprise. The Herald can today reveal that as long as seven years ago officials at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) warned that Oban Airport would be "unlikely" to get the licence that Argyll and Bute Council is now seeking.

Consultants hired by Argyll and Bute in January 2000 said CAA officials in informal talks had signalled they would be "unlikely" to give the airfield a Code 2 licence "because of substantial infringements of a number of important safety surfaces".

The council yesterday said it was now confident that it would get the licence for Oban. A survey carried out in May of this year confirmed this, officials said.

Aviation insiders last night said they, too, believed that some of the major obstacles facing the airfield - most stemming from its mountainous location - could be overcome. But they asked: "At what cost?"

In January 2006, a CAA official scolded the council for planning and, in some cases, carrying out work "prior to the formal involvement of the authority".

The man who effectively ran Connel airfield for years has long been cynical about the way the project has been handled, even though he supports the principle of flights to the islands.

Paul Keegan, of Total Logistics Concepts, said: "The council's project is unworkable and on all fronts, social, moral, strategic and financial, it is bereft of justification and common sense. It will eventually collapse at huge cost to the taxpayer and great disappointment to the islanders."

Critics believe the council has spent far more on the project than it needed to. They argue that the authority could have provided simple lifeline services to the islands for a fraction of the cost.

Old grass landing strips on Coll and Colonsay, for example, were paved. But they weren't lengthened. So, realistically, they can still only take one kind of plane, the Britten-Norman Islander or BN-2.

Mr Macaskill and some other councillors have admitted their ambitions were bigger than short hops to Coll and Colonsay. They wanted services to Glasgow and beyond, and the council yesterday hinted at operators interested in other flights.

Oban doesn't need a Code 2 licence to provide the lifeline services to Coll and Colonsay. For that, a Code 1 would suffice. So what is the problem with licensing at Oban and on the two islands?

Argyll and Bute until now has blamed the firm it hired to provide fire engines for Oban, Angloco of Yorkshire.

Yesterday, a council spokeswoman declined to say exactly what was wrong with the appliances because of what she described as "legal" issues with Angloco.

Yet the firm, which insists it has made the tenders exactly to order, has still to take the matter to court. It still hopes to resolve its dispute through arbitration.

The council, however, yesterday for the first time also admitted it was using the hiatus with the fire engines to resolve other, unspecified, issues.

But does Argyll really need to go through all this red tape? There are many senior figures in Scotland's aviation industry who don't think so. One is George Cormack of Hebridean Air Services, Scotland's biggest operator of BN-2s.

Mr Cormack yesterday said: "The whole business of aerodrome licensing throughout the Highlands and Islands should be reconsidered because it is costing the Scottish taxpayer millions of pounds per year and there is not a historical safety case to back up this requirement.

"The money saved could be spent on improving the small airport facilities to enable them to be used during periods of inclement weather."

Mr Cormack's firm has a rare license that allows him to make "public transport" flights into unlicensed airfields using a fleet of BN-2 Islanders. He said: "My company could start operating the proposed routes at short notice."

What Mr Cormack has in mind is an air-taxi service into Coll and Colonsay from Oban.

This is exactly what the consultants, back in 2000, suggested that Argyll should do, to test the market.

The council didn't follow that advice. Why not? Because, said the council, the CAA wouldn't have allowed them to.

Its spokeswoman said: "The council's view on this, supported by the CAA, is that any air service irrespective of whether it describes itself as a charter' and that runs to a published timetable can only operate into licensed airfields.

"Irrespective of what other sources may have said, this is the case and can be readily verified with a phone call to CAA."

So what does CAA actually demand? The regulator for decades has, in fact, allowed charter and scheduled flights into unlicensed airfields. Two airlines, LoganAir and Direct Flights, fly to unlicensed and unpaved airstrips on islands like Foula and the Outer Skerries in Shetland.

True, CAA is eager to see any new scheduled services, like those in Argyll, comply with its toughest regimes. Yet those who deal with CAA regularly, stress that it is ready to compromise, if asked.

Did Argyll and Bute seek the kind of exemption enjoyed in Shetland?

The council declined to say.

Airport in numbers

0 - Number of scheduled flights to take off since revamp.

£8.5m - Latest cost for upgrading airfields at Oban, Coll and Colonsay
£3.25m - Original council estimate of the cost of upgrading Oban Airport, as of March 2000.