McArthur — HIAL must consider ‘calling time’ on air traffic scheme

Orkney’s MSP, Liam McArthur, has warned that HIAL must “take heed” of the “damning findings” findings of the retrospective island impact assessment into their proposed Air Traffic Management Strategy (ATMS) that have been published today, Friday.

The report, which assesses the impact of HIAL’s plans to centralise air traffic control services to Inverness, is said to have uncovered a number of “significant negative impacts” for Orkney, including on airline travel, economic activity, employment and renewables development. No positive impacts were noted.

The report states that in Orkney, “the total impact is estimated as 16.2 FTE jobs and £653,000 in gross salaries. These jobs and salaries will be lost in 2024 under ATMS.”

Mr McArthur has been calling on both HIAL and the Scottish Government to halt the centralisation plans for a number of years and has described the report’s findings as making this case ‘stronger than ever.’

Commenting on the findings, Mr McArthur said: “We’ve known for months that HIAL’s plans are damaging for our islands, but the impact assessment has revealed the full scale of this decision for our community.

“The report not only underlines what HIAL’s own advisers warned them at the very beginning, that this is the riskiest and costliest option, but also details in no uncertain terms that these proposals will have a detrimental long-term impact on our lifeline services and local economy.

“Nobody has ever questioned the need to modernise air traffic control services but HIAL’s insistence that they do it by deploying ATMS is becoming less credible each day.

“With costs for the project continuing to rise at a time when the aviation sector is facing considerable uncertainty, the case for halting the strategy is stronger than ever.

“Ministers must also absorb responsibility for these damning findings and, along with HIAL, take heed of the warnings outlined in this report if we are to safeguard air traffic services in the islands and uphold the credibility of island impact assessments.

“Serious consideration must be given to calling time on these centralisation proposals.”