Thursday 10 September 2009

Airport traffic

Once again, Edinburgh airport is beating Glasgow:
Passenger numbers at Edinburgh airport increased by 4.8% in August, one of the few airports which recorded growth.

The figures from airport operator BAA showed that Glasgow had the sharpest decrease in traffic with a fall of 13.4%

Unlike some residents of the capital I am a fan of Glasgow. Scotland needs a prosperous Glasgow. Clearly Edinburgh's benefited from the Festival, which seemed to be busier than ever this year, and Glasgow depends on outward holiday traffic to greater extent than Edinburgh.

I fear that the SNP administration is making the same mistakes as its Labour predecessor. This remains typical of the Scottish government's mindset:

Mr Swinney questioned the drinks firm's claim that the rescue package was not viable.

"There's two points of basic economics at stake in this," he said.

"The first point is the fact that the Kilmarnock economy will be devastated and the Scottish Government and the UK Government will have to pick up the pieces, at a cost we estimate at £14m a year.

"The second point of basic economics is that when you come to a proposal with a financial gap of let's say £3 to £4m, and a company is making profits of £2bn, I don't think it's an unreasonable proposition to say to the company you have a corporate social responsibility to protect communities that have served you well."

The Kilmarnock economy will only be "devastated" to the extent that new entrepreneurs fail to make up for the lost Diageo jobs. Instead of government "picking up the pieces" why not remove the barriers to entrepreneurship? That's what will make the west of Scotland prosperous and help Glasgow airport boom again. And Prestwick of course.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Edinburh Hotel
the-edinburg.blogspot.com 
More about Edinburgh

4 November 2009, 12:29:18 GMT
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Colin Finlay
It may be no coincidence that Scotland's most notable whisky firms are unlisted and in private local hands, viz., Edrington Holdings and William Grant & Sons.

14 September 2009, 06:12:10 GMT+01:00
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Colin Finlay.
Diageo Plc may not be long for this world. Private Equity buyouts will be back soon and a potential purchaser of the company could sell off both Guinness and the LVMH cognac joint venture interest.

12 September 2009, 09:53:22 GMT+01:00
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james higham
I love these little local rivalries.

11 September 2009, 16:28:41 GMT+01:00
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D H
I use Glasgow airport every week. I don't find it depressing and since they changed the interior layout it's better than before. My only request would be they seperate tourists from business travellers or at least UK internal flights from other flights as waiting for a tourist to empty their pockets, take off their belt, etc. is infuriating for those of us who "know the drill".  
 
So the SNP put forward a proposal with a financial gap of £3-4m? Is that per year or over a period? I don't think our Finance Secretary has ever worked in a real company.  
 
I can't imagine doing a pitch on a proposal that costs the company 3-4 million more ongoing and expecting to a)Keep my job b)Not to be laughed out of the room.  
 
The consquence of Diageo agreeing to this would be a drop in the share value as investors wonder what other charitable descisions the company will make on their behalf.

11 September 2009, 12:36:39 GMT+01:00
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subrosa
David, I'm happy to use Edinburgh or Glasgow as an airport but I much prefer Edinburgh. Glasgow airport is such a depressing place and does little for Glasgow.

10 September 2009, 23:52:39 GMT+01:00
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Sam Duncan
I can't help thinking that one reason Edinburgh's overtaken Glasgow is that it's to the west of the city. It's less inconvenient for Glaswegians to travel to and from Turnhouse than it is for Edinburghers to use Abbotsinch.  
 
It's far from the only (or even main) reason, but if you were building a Central Scotland Airport explicitly to serve both cities, you certainly wouldn't put it in Paisley.

10 September 2009, 22:45:41 GMT+01:00