Dear Sir,
At present it is snowing heavily in Scotland and the countryside is white. I have been following your campaign along with the hundreds of readers e mails on the internet. Many Scots used to enjoy the winter sun in Majorca. It is unfortunate that they can no longer get there in the winter months due to the lack of flights. The irony of this situation is that the Scottish Government own Prestwick airport which is situated about 15 miles west of Glasgow and they are desperate to build up airport traffic to make it viable. In 2013 the Scottish Government paid just £1 to buy the debt ridden Prestwick airport from Infratil. The Scottish Government have committed a £25.2 million loan fund to the airport. My local member of the Scottish Parliament is Keith Brown. When the airport was purchased in 2013 he was the Transport Minister. He has now been promoted to Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities as from December 2014 when Nicola Sturgeon took over as First Minister.
I am a constituent of Keith Brown and I intend to write to him and present him with copies of the campaign that you have been running in the Majorca Daily Bulletin and request a meeting with him as a constituent. Naturally I will write to the Bulletin detailing the outcome of my proposed meeting with Keith Brown.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Rice, Scottish Resident (open letter)
Dear Sir,
Lorraine Ure of Minorca wrote in today’s MDB about the lack of winter flights to Minorca and presumably the same problem applies to Ibiza. It is worth considering two possible solutions to this problem:
1. An airline operating flights to the UK from Palma could offer mid day departures to several UK airports with return flights leaving the UK at mid afternoon thus making it possible for passengers to connect to and from Minorca or Ibiza. The problem of course with this is that it involves a change of aircraft at Palma and also an extra air fare plus hold luggage charges, unless a more economical transfer arrangement can be reached with the airline operating between Palma and the other two islands.
2. A Palma based airline could operate one or two flights per week from Palma via one or other of the islands to a number of UK airports. This arrangement would add one hour to the sector time between Palma and the UK and also add about 4,200 euros to the operating cost of the flight. At the average fare of 105 euros this would require 40 passengers to join each flight in order to break even.
I hope this explains some of the difficulties which airlines face in drawing up their schedules.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Leeming, Puerto Portals
Dear Sir,
The Duke of Cambridge is currently in China and although he won’t bring up the subject of their Civil Rights I believe he will bring up Animal Rights and specifically the protection of those species in danger of extinction. One such is the Black Rhino whose horn is worth more than gold. I suggest Prince William persuades them that Jihadi testicles are an alternative aphrodisiac – this would lead to their extermination within a decade!
Mike Lillico