Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, the state-owned airport operator has today (10^th May 2002) hit out at "threats and intimidation" by Ryanair during negotiations to bring the budget airline to Inverness and Stornoway airports.

HIAL, which operates ten airports, has been in discussions with Ryanair for the past two weeks in an attempt to negotiate increased flights to the Highlands and Islands, boosting the local economy.

But chief executive Bob Macleod has branded Ryanair’s actions as "tantamount to blackmail" after receiving a letter today from Ryanair’s chief financial officer Michael Cawley which states:

"…if we don’t have confirmation by the end of this week, we will be issuing a statement confirming that the talks with Highlands and Islands have gotten nowhere because of inept and incompetent management."

Mr Macleod said: "This is an astonishing ultimatum to make after only one meeting with Ryanair in the past two weeks and the exchange of some faxes and e-mails.

"We’ve explained to Ryanair that both Inverness and Stornoway will require significant capital investment, to the tune of approximately £18 million per airport, to prepare them for the airline’s 737-800 series aircraft."

In the case of Stornoway HIAL explained that it would have to install a full instrument landing system, five bar approach lights, strengthen taxiways, increase the size of the parking apron and increase the size of the new terminal building and car park prior to Ryanair starting operations from Prestwick.

Mr Macleod said: "We explained to Ryanair that we were interested in their proposals but that we would have to present Ministers with a business plan for the funds. We were preparing an economic assessment as part of the business plan but clearly Ryanair has no patience for that and chooses not to understand that the use of taxpayers’ funds has to be justified.

"Ryanair understands perfectly well that, as a state-funded organisation, we’re not in a position to commit enormous expenditure without carrying out a feasibility study and consulting with our shareholder, the Scottish Executive, but they’ve still issued a ridiculous and extremely ill-considered threat. These are the tactics of the playground bully.

Mr Cawley’s letter also states "If a decision is going to require lots of meetings with Board members, Scottish Executive officials, Scottish ministers, etc, etc, don’t bother. We have 40 other airports around Europe who actually want to stimulate traffic and tourism and don’t feel the need to have meetings about meetings about meetings."

Mr Macleod said: "We’re extremely keen to work with any airline to increase traffic to the Highlands and Islands, as we’ve already shown with easyJet, which operates a successful service to London Luton.

"Trite phrases such as ‘Ryanair’s promised growth doesn’t require a business plan, it simply requires your Board to approve some initiative to stimulate growth and join in the low fares revolution’ don’t reflect well on a business which we had hoped would be prepared to work in partnership to improve services for local people and businesses."

"One can only speculate on their decision to put a gun to our heads in this way."

Ends