IT WAS a feather in Aberdeen’s cap to attract the Routes Europe conference last month, bringing 1,200 representatives of airlines, airports and tourism organisations to the area.
This was an opportunity for Aberdeen to showcase itself to a particularly influential audience.
It also created additional awareness of an industry and issues which are of great economic and strategic importance.
Flight connectivity and access are, according to every study, hugely important factors in influencing international trade and investment.
A location not on the aviation map is unlikely to be at the forefront of business minds.
Aberdeen has had a huge headstart because of its oil industry role.
Not only is it relatively well-served by direct flights, both international and domestic, but also has crucial links which many regional cities would give their right arm for.
Heathrow, Schiphol, Frankfurt and Charles de Gaulle are the major hubs from which the world is the business traveller’s oyster.
Better to be able to travel direct to any destination but, failing that, inter-connectivity via major carriers is a vital alternative.
So while it is good to see new services developing, like the announcement of a Wizz flight between Aberdeen and Gdansk, the highest priority must be to retain and strengthen regular connections with the major international hubs.
Experience shows these can be fragile and dependent solely on rates of usage and profitability.
Airlines constantly measure the viability of routes against potential yields from other options.
Slots at major airports are exceptionally valuable commodities.
The impending demise of Virgin’s Little Red after less than a couple of years illustrates the point.
Having achieved a load factor of under 40 per cent, they were ripe for the chop.
The hopes vested in an alternative to British Airways serving Heathrow proved very short-lived.
BA itself increasingly treats its domestic routes as feeder services for long-haul traffic.
Gradually, the number of BA flights between Scotland and Heathrow has declined.
In the absence of alternatives, this represents a reduction in connectivity with other airlines.
Part of the solution for centres like Aberdeen lies in building up Gatwick and City.
This coincides with BA’s own need to reduce dependence on Heathrow – particularly given the failure to resolve where airport expansion will take place in the south-east.
Politically, I find the Scottish Government’s decision not to reintroduce the Route Development Fund which it axed in 2008 puzzling.
New services often require a “suck-it-and-see” approach with initial subsidy.
Scotland’s RDF delivered over 30 new routes and, in rapidly changing times, we need such a scheme again.
Routes Europe 2015 reminded us of what a complex, volatile business this is, but a crucial one.
Aberdeen, I’m sure, will fight its own corner with even greater vigour at a time of all-round economic challenges.