Inverness Airport
Inverness Airport | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Highlands and Islands Airports Limited | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Inverness | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Dalcross | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 31 ft / 9 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 57°32′33″N 004°02′51″W / 57.54250°N 4.04750°W | ||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Inverness Airport (IATA: INV, ICAO: EGPE) is an international airport situated at Dalcross, 7 nautical miles (13 km) northeast of the city of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, United Kingdom. The airport is the main gateway for travellers to the north of Scotland with a wide range of scheduled services throughout the UK and Ireland, and limited charter and freight flights into Europe with passenger throughput of 700,000 in 2006.Inverness Airport Masterplan. It is owned by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) who own most of the regional airports in mainland Scotland and the outlying islands.
History
The airport was originally used by the Royal Air Force during World War II and was opened for civil operations in 1947. British European Airways, one of the predecessors to British Airways, commenced flights to London Heathrow in the mid-1970s using a combination of Hawker Siddeley Tridents (jets) and Vickers Viscounts (4-engined turbopropos). By the late 1970s and early 1980s Inverness enjoyed two services a day to Heathrow. However, the airline axed the route in 1983 on the grounds of poor financial performance. Dan-Air inherited the service, offering a three-times daily service using initially BAC 1-11 jets followed in the early 1990s by Boeing 737-200 series equipment. The airline sustained the route adding links to Gatwick and Manchester in the late 1980s. These two new services were, however, operated on a daily basis and proved not to be successful. When Dan Air was bought by British Airways for £1 in 1992, the flag carrier retained the service for a further five years, adding a fourth daily frequency shortly before withdrawing the link, amid considerable controversey and public anger, in Autumn 1997. BA transferred the London service to Gatwick, operated by its subsidiary on a three-times daily basis using lower capacity BAe 146 regional jets. The emergence of EasyJet as a force in UK aviation also coincided with the launch of a daily service to Luton in 1996. Other destinations and airlines were added (Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Leeds-Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle), particularly after 2003, where HIALs's marketing efforts were assisted by route development fund support from the Scottish Executive. Interestingly, the Heathrow link was re-instated in 2004, this time by bmi on a daily frequency.
The airport performs an important function within the Highlands and Islands network, functioning as a hub where flights between the islands and the central belt connect. In the 1970s, British Airways operated Viscount services on the network later downsising to Hawker Siddley 748s. These were then replaced by ATPs. BA continued to lose money on these routes and gradually transferred its operations to franchise carriers BRAL and Loganair. Today these services are all operated by Loganair under a franchise agreement with BA. Another emerging player is Inverness-based Highland Airways which operates links to Stornoway and Benbecula as well as providing mail servcies to all the islands. Links to the central belt have recently been lost. There are no longer any direct services to Glasgow after they were withdrawn by Loganair. Highland Airways' attempts to operate this service were very short-lived. There is a twice daily link to Edinburgh but flight times are not that convenient.
International services have never really taken-off at Inverness with the exception of the recently established link with Dublin. The now defunct Snowflake (low cost subsidiary of SAS) operated a twice weekly service to Stockholm in the Summer of 2004. This service was withdrawn after a short period of operations due to lack of demand. Days before 9/11, Scot Airways launched a service to Amsterdam - this was promptly withdrawn. KLM UK operated a daily service to Amsterdam via Edinburgh in 1997 but this too was short-lived, lasting only a few months. British Airways experimented with a Saturday only connection to Bergen in Norway (via Kirkwall and Sumburgh) during the summer season in 1990 but this too was withdrawn and never re-instated.
The airport terminal is notable as an early example of the Public Private Partnership favoured by the UK Government. HIAL was criticised for a PFI deal signed to build a new terminal at Inverness Airport. The deal signed by HIAL meant it had to pay £3.50 every passenger flying from the airport to the PFI operator. In 2006, the PFI deal was cancelled, costing the Scottish Executive £27.5 million. [1]
Future Developments
2008 will see some perhaps aggressive competition at Inverness Airport with Flybe taking on Eastern Airways on 3 of its 4 existing routes from the Highland Capital. In March, a daily service will commence to Birmingham, followed by a twice-daily service to Manchester and daily services to Southampton and Exeter in May.
Flybe has also announced its intention to commence two international routes from Inverness to Paris and Amsterdam in September 2008. The airline will also be replacing the ageing BAe 146-300 aircraft used on the London-Gatwick route with a brand new Embraer 195.
bmi will end Inverness' only link with London-Heathrow at the end of March 2008.
Airlines and destinations
Scheduled flights
- Aer Arann (Dublin)
- bmi (London-Heathrow [ends 29 March])
- Eastern Airways (Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Southampton)
- EasyJet (Bristol, London-Gatwick, London-Luton)
- Flybe (Belfast City, Birmingham [begins 30 March], Exeter [begins 8 May], London-Gatwick, Manchester [begins 8 May], Southampton [begins 8 May])
- operated by Loganair (Edinburgh, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Sumburgh) [begin 26 October]
- Highland Airways (Benbecula, Stornoway)
- Ryanair (East Midlands)
Charter flights
- Air Europa (Palma de Mallorca, Reus) [begins 28 June]
- Astraeus (Funchal) [ad-hoc charter 26 March]
- VLM (Jersey) [begins 28 June)
Transport Links
Road
The airport is located 9 miles east of the City of Inverness just off the main A96 Aberdeen-Inverness trunk road.
Bus
Improved bus services are now operating between the City of Inverness, Inverness Airport and Nairn. From the airport services to operate to Inverness up to every 30 minutes and every hour to Nairn. For timetables, routes, fares and onward connections information see: [1].
Rail
There is no stop at Inverness Airport, although the Aberdeen to Inverness Line runs along the south perimeter of the airfield. A new stop at the airport has been proposed recently, however for the meantime the nearest stations are Nairn or Inverness (both approximately 9 miles away).
Car Hire
Both Avis and Hertz are represented within the terminal building.