Blue Skye Thinking: the battle to build an airport which will change Scotland's most beloved island

Islanders are split over the airport - with some religious figures uncomfortable with the prospect of Sunday flights - and the Scottish government is offering no financial help. If the Islanders want the airport they’ll have to raise the money themselves, it seems.

Skye’s airstrip at Ashaig, near Broadford, was a transport hub for airline Loganair between 1972 and 1988 but there has been little air traffic since. The most recent feasibility study suggests it would cost at least £2.3million to bring it back to Civil Aviation Authority standards - effectively making it an island airport.

The report also warns that the bill could rise to £15.3million if the watchdog wanted the runway lengthened and widened to accommodate 19-seater aircraft - the key to bringing tourists and their money to Skye.

Skye can be reached by ferry or by a road bridge but it is more than two hours from the nearest airport and at least a five hour drive from the central belt, making it a testing trek for tourists to get to.

The Scottish Government has said funds for the airstrip project would have to be raised locally but the cash-strapped owner Highland Council is facing a £46million budget black hole over the next four years and is unlikely to green light an overhaul any time soon.

Despite financial constraints, campaign group FlySkye are putting pressure on the government’s economic and community development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and a new study has now been launched which will look at the benefits of regular air links.

Shirley Spear, co-founder of the Michelin starred Skye restaurant The Three Chimneys, and a vocal founding member of FlySkye, said: “We started campaigning three years ago in October. There was just myself, Boyd Robertson, who is the Principal of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, and Ian Blackford, who has since become MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

“We’ve only just, on November 12, seen the launch of a business survey by HIE. It is really, really frustrating ... Personally I find it very hard because as a small business owner you have to work much faster than that if you are to survive and we’re dependent on support from the major public agencies.

“Parts of Skye and the north west are considered to be really fragile economic areas and I think it’s worth noting that HIE’s whole ethos is about strengthening communities.”

Spear also insists that figures in the feasibility study were “completely out of date as soon as they were published” and said a major flaw was that it was based on the viability of two flights a day Monday to Friday and only one a day at the weekend, when the demand for the service would be expected to rise.

FlySkye has a strong presence online which is used to state their position but Spear has been left disappointed that campaigners have been shut out of recent high level meetings between key stakeholders.

She said: “HIE and the council have been involved in talks. There has been progress there but FlySkye as such has not been allowed to be in on any of those meetings or publish anything on social media. The public agencies are a little but anxious.

“It has been an amazingly responsive campaign on Facebook and Twitter with thousands of likes and followers. For a small island community of 12,000 people I think that is a pretty big statement. But the public agencies seem to be a little wary of allowing us information. They just keep it all very close. Although they are working together to find answers to the feasibility of reinstating air services they are not sharing it with FlySkye.”

This reticence could be explained by the tepid support for the high profile campaign among some sections of the community on Skye. It is understood at least one church is opposed to flights on a Sunday and there’s also a fear that locals will be priced out of the market when it comes to the cost of air travel.

Meanwhile, the operator of the only commercial air service to and from the island, David West, has been blocked from commenting on the campaign’s Facebook page after he pointed out that the airstrip has been used by his company for the last two summers.

David West, Managing Director and Chief Pilot at Loch Lomond Seaplanes, has invested almost half a million pounds in an aircraft which carries passengers between Cameron House in Loch Lomond and Skye for £89 a journey.

He said: “The issue I think is that commercially it costs a lot of money and if you were to run a regular flight between Glasgow Airport and Skye I don’t see how it can be less than £300 return. The people we carry are people from the central belt who are treating themselves and American tourists. We didn’t carry anyone from the island. We are just looking to pay our fuel costs but if I was actually to run this all year I’d be nervous. That’s the commercial reality.”

A spokesman for Highlands and Islands Airports, the company that owns and operates 11 airports in the Scottish Highlands, the Northern Isles and the Western Isles, was also lukewarm about the FlySkye campaign.

He said: “We await the findings of the HIE survey with interest and will provide technical advice to the project, if required.”

Despite this, Spear remains hopeful that the project will take off in the coming years.

She said: “I don’t believe that there is any single customer who comes to my restaurant that wouldn’t think it was a good idea. But the thing that I was always very scared about was that the community at large would think this campaign is all for high flying tourists with lots of money. I don’t want to be seen to be promoting the whole idea on that level.

“It will be a benefit to our business, that’s an undeniable outcome, but I also believe that all the other people who are not in business but live on Skye want to be able to choose to fly rather than make that long road journey every time they get off the island. It would make life a little bit better for everyone, which is what HIE is all about.”

Stuart Macpherson, HIE’s head of strengthening communities for Skye, Lochaber and Wester Ross, said: “The new study will attempt to build a clear picture of how a service would affect local businesses, and what social and community benefits there may be from any air service.

“There are 140 responses so far so the uptake to date is exceeding our expectations of a survey like this. In addition to the online survey the detailed one-to-one business surveys are progressing well, as are the stakeholder and community consultations.

“The findings of the study, along with those of the feasibility study in 2013, will help inform any future business case to re-establish the service.”

A spokeswoman for Highland Council said: “Community Services have been managing the airstrip and it has been used over the past two summer seasons by Loch Lomond Seaplanes, and also by a local flying club.

“A further study is under way following the 2013 Skye Air Services Feasibility Study which recommended further work to establish wider economic and social growth and benefits, and to assess technical/ infrastructure aspects, which is currently underway as a parallel work. The study’s findings are anticipated to be presented initially to stakeholders in December 2015.”

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The Scottish Government has no plans for future air services to Skye. We recognise the aspirations of bodies and individuals in the Highlands and Islands to expand air services and we are happy to discuss them, but we would expect funding for such an air service to be sourced at a local level.”