Sometimes I have to take the bus from Edinburgh back home to the Isle of Skye. This means leaving St Andrew’s Station just after 8am, changing buses in Glasgow, perhaps again at Tyndrum, then waiting in Fort William for yet another bus to take me on the final two-hour leg through Lochaber and Lochalsh before crossing the Skye Bridge at about 4.15pm. The mainland is only a few hundred yards away when I get off, grateful for the fresh air.

For those living 50 miles further on, in the north of the island, you can add another hour’s travelling time, maybe more.

According to Google maps Edinburgh to south Skye is over 200 miles. For an experienced car driver who knows the roads this distance can be closed in four hours, with maybe a little illegality here and there. It takes eight hours on a bus. Yes, the barren immensity of much of the Highlands is breath-taking, but do that journey often enough and the landscape starts to lose a little of its fabled allure.

Hope is at hand - it is possible to imagine a better world. Eight hours on, or waiting, for a bus is a slog; less than an hour on a plane is a jaunt. You’d race along Princes St, full of beans, to do your Christmas shopping if you could fly down; you’d pop up to Skye to climb a Cuillin and be back home for dinner (OK, supper).

This is the dream of some people who live on Skye.

For an island largely dependent on tourism, the creation of an air service to and from the Central Belt can only be a good thing. More pounds, dollars and euros will flow this way, runs the argument. And that will undoubtedly happen if people can fly up here.

Another point of view is that for those who have to drive regularly to Glasgow and Edinburgh for business reasons, being able to go down and up in a single day without suffering eye-strain, a stiff back and a headache makes life a hell of a lot easier. And that’s a fair point too.

As far as your carbon footprint is concerned I wouldn’t care to say which is smaller – a 400 mile round-trip by road, or a short-duration flight on a 19-seater that might be half empty. There’s bound to be a set of equations somewhere to crunch that one out. Anyway, there’s a big push on for a Skye air service, run along commercial lines, and it sounds like a great alternative to eight hours on a bus.

But there’s a catch. A report published by Highlands and Islands Enterprise – which is very keen to establish a Skye-Central Belt route – estimates that the cost of a one-way ticket will come in at between £110 and £200. For rich tourists that won’t be a problem. Professionals on Skye will have a better road/life balance and will pay for the privilege. But for a family on a modest income £200 one-way - per person, remember - is a big hit. In an area blighted by low incomes, for many it will be unaffordable. People might shell out a few hundred quid to bask in the sun, but will they spend that kind of money to go to Glasgow and back?

Maybe they will.

As it stands, at least £2.2 million will have to be spent on bringing the current airstrip (there has been one near Broadford since 1972) up to scratch. Some HIE modelling suggests £15 million might be nearer the mark if the airstrip has to be lengthened to accommodate bigger aircraft. In these days of never-ending austerity, the thought of this kind of expenditure on the "back of beyond" might have some people laughing up their sleeves.

How short-sighted of them if they do.

Skye is one of the jewels in Scotland’s crown. If you’ve seen the Cuillin when the light is right you’ll know what I’m talking about. But Skye, in common with much of the west Highlands and Islands, is about far more than stunning scenery.

For too long the area has suffered from a lack of investment. There are some people who are quite happy to keep things that way if it means their views aren’t spoiled.

Views and fresh air and wide open spaces are important. They’re good for the soul. But people are important too. If an air service between Skye and the Central Belt is established, and used, fares will come down. Travel and work will become far, far easier. This won’t by itself stop the long-term out-migration of the area’s youth, but it’s a step in the right direction. It shows that the place matters, for human as well as geological reasons.

If creating a prosperous Scotland means anything at all it applies north of Stirling and west of Inverness. It also applies south of Motherwell, but that’s another story.

Michael F Russell is deputy editor of the West Highland Free Press newspaper and his debut novel ‘Lie of the Land’ has been shortlisted in this year’s Saltire Society awards.