Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 30 on 01/12/2006.

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Planes, trains and automobiles

Visiting some of the most remote and beautiful spots in the world remains a challenge. But as Dominic Roskrow reports, the options are much better than they were

Whatever your views on the rights and wrongs of cheap airline travel, there can be no doubting that for small and more remote countries such as Scotland, they have been a Godsend.

Where once a journey to Edinburgh, Glasgow or beyond had to be prepared like it was a military campaign, now direct flights from across the world have opened up the country like never before. It’s pay-back time for a country that has for three decades lost out to the discount European package holiday market, which tempted holiday markets away from countries such as Scotland with the promise of a two hour flight to sun-kissed paradise rather than a lengthy trek north to warm woolly jumpers even in summer.

Many of us might not endorse the concept of passengers popping on and off planes like they were buses but for a country such as Scotland such travel isn’t a luxury but a necessity. Without such a service Caledonia would, quite frankly, be a step too far for many of the tourists who are enjoying short breaks across the country and pumping much-needed revenue in to an economy that took something of a battering post 9/11.

The effect of budget airlines is obvious wherever you look. Take Glasgow’s second airport, Prestwick, for instance. Situated some 20 miles to the south west of the city, it was, until a year or so ago, a pretty sorry place to go, a shell of an international airport whose glory days were behind it, clinging to memories such as the visit in the late 50s of Elvis Presley on his way to.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Scottish Travel

Page number : 68