Margo wants Edinburgh and Glasgow airports to work together

24.3.2009   (Edinburgh Evening News)

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald is urging closer co-operation between
Edinburgh and Glasgow airports as an alternative to the Competition Commission’s
demand that one of them should be sold off.  
She claims it makes more strategic sense for the two Central Belt airports to
work together than to compete.

And she has written to First Minister Alex Salmond asking for the Scottish Government
to investigate the idea before the commission’s ruling is implemented.

Airport operator BAA has been told it must sell Edinburgh or Glasgow to improve
competition.

But Ms MacDonald said: “I believe the alternative strategy of seeing Edinburgh
and Glasgow as co-operating with each other in competition with Manchester is
something that should be investigated.

“If you think about air traffic to and from Scotland, we are a small country,
and they could operate almost as one unit.

“They could share the different types of traffic between them – freight, holidays,
short-haul, long-haul – or each could concentrate on one kind of work.”

The owners of Manchester Airport are among the expected bidders if Edinburgh
goes on sale.

Ms MacDonald added: “I would like to see my idea investigated before the die
is cast and one of these airports falls out of the control of people rooted in
Scotland and the Scottish economy.”