Inverness Airport and the Local Community

At Inverness airport, we are dedicated to supporting local community and charity activity as much as we possibly can. We regularly welcome groups of school children, businesses and associations to the airport and take them on a "behind the scenes" tour. We also try to work with as many local suppliers as possible when looking for goods and services and encourage all our concessions and partners to mirror this policy.

In 2009, we worked with:

Highland Disability Sports
In July 2009, 108 athletes from the "Team Highland" flew from Inverness to attend the Special Olympics in Leicester. The special charter was laid on by Flybe. Inverness Airport presented the team with a cheque for £1,500 as part of the airports commitment to supporting local events and organisations.

The team departed with excitement and returned the following weekend to a great cheer from all their friends and families, a highland piper and Inverness Caley Thistle Football Club's manager, Terry Butcher on the tarmac as they landed and showed off their many medals.

Carol Singing at Christmas
Every year, Inverness airport welcomes groups of local school children to the airport terminal building to lead all customers in a selection of carols and Christmas favourites.

Blas Festival
In September 2011, Inverness airport proudly hosted a Celtic Music and Dance event as part of the Blas Festival. The terminal cafe was transformed into an arena and seating venue with over 70 guests enjoying the evening from three groups of performers, playing Gaelic, Traditional and Speyside tunes, reels and dancing for over two and half hours.

Baby Friendly
During a recent 'baby friendly' NHS Highland promotion, Inverness Airport was given commendations for its facilities within the airport terminal. The team from NHS Highland when visiting the terminal, were impressed with the standard of baby changing facility and were keen for the airport to register for the baby friendly premises scheme.

Many aspects of the scheme are bound in law and it is now an offence to prevent or stop a person breast feeding a child (under the age of 2) in a public place. Inverness airport terminal is delighted embrace this scheme.

Loo of the Year Award
Inverness airport is proud to have been awarded 5 star status in the National Loo of the Year Awards held in London in December 2010, as it was found to be the ‘best away from home' toilets in the UK within the airport category. We are also very proud to be able to offer customers "Ness Soaps" products within our toilet facilities. Ness Soaps are produced by a local team of volunteers, many of whom have learning difficulties, out of a workshop based in Inverness. Using their products gives customers a ‘flavour' of highland products within the facilities.

Tore Gallery
Within the airport terminal building, there is an ongoing display of paintings by local artists supplied by the Tore Gallery. Customers have time to sit and relax and enjoy them as they are displayed within the cafe area in the arrivals and shopping area and in the departures lounge. The displays are changed to match the seasons and all paintings can be purchased by contacting the Tore Gallery directly.

Local Business Visits and Support
On 22nd January 2010, Inverness hosted the latest SCDI visit as a "Behind the Scenes" series presents which gives a fantastic opportunity for SCDI members to gain an insight into what is required to make a successful regional airport, such as Inverness, function effectively.

As well as a welcome and briefing from Graeme Bell, Airport Manager, there was a chance to find out what goes on within the Air Traffic Control centre and in the baggage handling and security areas.

Members also visited the new Executive Lounge and had a chance to look around the aircraft parking areas and find out exactly how the planes are controlled and brought in to land. Refreshments and buffet lunch were provided as part of the visit, courtesy of HIAL. Over 45 guests attended the event and the airport hopes to be able to repeat the event in the future. Feedback from the event was very positive and included the following comments:

"Thank you for the email just getting round to reading it now and see that I won, how exciting. The tour was really good around the airport. I really enjoyed the day and being able to see what goes on behind the scenes. It was especially interesting hearing about the security checks and seeing the demonstration from the security staff about how easy it is for people to try and hide things on them, also very scary but good to see that they are well trained and informed. Makes you think twice about having to wait a while to get through to the departure lounge." Natalie MacIsaac, Business Development Co-coordinator, Orion Group

"Excellent visit. Very worthwhile and well done to you and HIAL for organising." Sam MacNaughton, Head of Transport and Infrastructure, Highland Council

"Please pass on my thanks to Highlands & Islands Airports Limited and thanks to SCDI for organising the fascinating tour of Inverness Airport on Friday". Fiona Neilson, Partner, Ledingham Chalmers

"Thanks for having us. Ilona and I found the visit really enjoyable and an insight into how the airport functions was really interesting." Michelle Wemyss, European Business Development Officer, Enterprise Europe Scotland

The event was also covered by Inverness TV and can be viewed on http://invernesstv.net/.