Originally Posted by ajamieson
As for the Executive's route development fund, I should point out that development agencies in north-west England and Yorkshire both give assistance to airlines starting direct routes, so this isn't an exclusively Scottish phenomenon (doesn't make it right, of course...) Also, the assistance cannot be given until the route has been confirmed in the first place as required by EU law - in other words, it is not a case of the Executive saying "we'll give you x per pax rebates if you start this route regardless of demand" but rather "now you've that identified a certain demand, we'll give you x per pax rebates not to abandon the route after six months". The RDF rebate averaged out at £1.27 per pax for 696,000 pax a year in 04/05 and is not payable when load factors get above about 75%. In the example you've given, CO's EDI-EWR loads average 92 per cent (and it's twice daily in summer, not daily
) so it hasn't seen much of your hard-earned English tax pound...
Don't you just hate it when someone cuts down a great sensationalist woolly story with a bunch of meaningless statistics...
I do however stand by my earlier assertion that many weegies would consider flying from EDI (especially if cheaper) if there was a (cheap) way of getting there in little longer than it would take to get out to Paisley international or whatever it's called.
The same subsidies could then go a lot further to developing a national hub at one airport rather than squandering the money and duplicating routes from airports just 50 miles or less apart. I mean, think about it - 3 flights a day to NY - there would be no excuse for having to fly via LHR (other than for those who just want to keep the BA tier points balance up...)