2. Historic Development of the Airport
2. Historic Development of the Airport
2.1. The story of Dundee Airport began some 50 years ago when an airfield was first opened in the Riverside area, but on a site to the east of where the airport is currently located. Back in 1963 the nascent airport had a grass runway with poor drainage and few supporting facilities. The grass runway was replaced by a 900m (2953 ft) long tarmac runway in 1977 and extended in stages to 1100m by 1984. This remained its length until 1994-95 when it was extended to the current length of 1,400 m (4,593 ft). Runway lighting and instrument approach facilities were progressively improved until full ILS for RWY 09 was provided in 2000.
Airport Ownership
2.2. Between 1963-1975 the grass airfield at Riverside was owned by Dundee Corporation; its successor authority, Tayside Regional Council, of which Perth and Kinross and Angus Council were also constituent parts, then took over the facility operation and development from 1975 until 1996. The decision to develop a fully-fledged airport at Dundee Airport was established in a policy document the Regional Council published 1977, which acknowledged the need for airport provision for Tayside to be subsidised. In 1996, following a further reform of local government, Dundee Airport was taken into the ownership of Dundee City Council at which point Perth and Kinross and Angus Councils involvement was discontinued.
2.3. In the face of reduced grant support from the Scottish Government and rising levels of operating losses, which increased pressure on the City Council's budget, the airport was offered to the Scottish Government for operation by Highlands and Islands Airport Ltd.
2.4. HIAL was incorporated in Edinburgh on 4th March 1986 as a private limited company under the Companies Act 1985. On 1st April 1995, ownership of the company passed from the Civil Aviation Authority to the Secretary of State for Scotland (now the Scottish Ministers). Classed as a Public Corporation within the Scottish Government HIAL operates a further 10 airports in the north of Scotland, substantially the largest of which is Inverness. In December 2007, Dundee Airport Limited ("DAL") was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of HIAL and is now responsible for the operation of Dundee airport.
2.5. Dundee City Council has retained ownership of the land on which the Airport is sited, but has granted a long lease at a peppercorn rent to HIAL/Scottish Government for airport use. We believe the Council would have all of the airport and its facilities returned to them at no cost if HIAL/Scottish Government were to give up the lease.
Scheduled Air Services
2.6. The history of scheduled air services that have operated from Dundee is a chequered one (see Table 2.1) commencing back in 1966 with links to other Scottish airports, encompassing repeated attempts (more or less successfully), to offer UK domestic services to the likes of Manchester, Birmingham, London and latterly Northern Ireland and two periods where there were no such services.
1.1. 2.7. The most significant periods in Dundee's scheduled service offering once access to London Heathrow was lost in 1987, were those dominated by Business Air of Aberdeen (later sold to British Midland Regional), which operated flights from Inverness and Aberdeen via Dundee to Manchester Airport in the 1990's, and later the era of Scot Airways which began services to London City in 1999 that have continued to this day.
2.8. Founded as Suckling Airways by Roy and Merlyn Suckling in 1984, ScotAirways did not come into existence until after the Sucklings had acquired Dornier 328 aircraft in 1995 and secured investment from Perth based Brian Souter and Ann Gloag of Stagecoach bus operator fame in 1999. Following the re-branding, ScotAirways began services from Dundee to London City, offering up to 4 flights a day to the capital.
2.9. In July 2007 Cityjet/Air France, which by then had developed a substantial presence at London City, took over the route from ScotAirways although they continued to provide the aircraft on wet-lease basis until January 2011. Between January and July 2011 CityJet operated the route on a reduced frequency, and with less suitable business travel times with their Fokker 50 aircraft, to the disquiet of the Dundee business community. But following the purchase of ScotAirways by Loganair on 8th July 2011, the Dornier 328 was reinstated on the route as part of a charter contract with CityJet Air France-KLM and is continuing to operate to date.
2.10. As a result of the withdrawal of Loganair's services to Birmingham and Belfast (which were initially commenced in May 2007 by Fly Whoosh with the help of the then Scottish Executive's Air Route Development Fund, but taken over by Loganair under a Flybe code-share in May 2008), in December last year, the London City route is the only scheduled service that remains at Dundee, although (as in previous years), there were also charter services to Jersey again in summer 2013.
The London City Service
2.11. CityJet currently offers 2 daily flights from Dundee DND to London City (LCY). The Dornier 328 used for the service is based at Dundee and currently operates as follows:
Figure 2.1: Dundee - London City Timetable Winter 2013
2.12. As a gateway to the capital, London City Airport does have its attractions; as Cityjet's marketing suggests, it is:
"incredibly close to the West End, the City and Canary Wharf, in fact Canary Wharf to the airport by DLR takes just 15 minutes. CityJet has just a 20 minute check-in time at London City Airport LCY, the shortest of any UK airport. Flying with CityJet means an end to uncivilised travel. No more hanging around in airports, no hassle in security queues or long walks to distant departure gates. With CityJet, all seats are assigned, all drinks and snacks are included and all fares are inclusive."
2.13. On the downside, London City does have a relatively high occurrence of weather cancellations owing to its very special operating conditions such as high visual minima, steep approach and significant nearby obstacles. These cancellations are a significant issue to some travellers. But of even greater concern, however, has been the dramatic increase in London City airport charges over recent years, which have reached levels (understood to be over £2000 a turn round) that threaten the viability of the Dundee service and have already obliged Cityjet to operate at less attractive off peak times. Comparative charges at other London airports, such as Stansted, are now approximately a third of the charges at London City. This sort of cost burden on a 31 seat aircraft with load factor of between 50-60% is estimated at an approximate £60 per leg resulting in return fares of between £300-400, rising towards £500 if booked for peak times close to the day of departure.
2.14. Consultations with local stakeholders in 2011 and 2012, served to make CityJet fully aware of the disincentive to patronage caused by very high fare levels - the stakeholder consultations undertaken as part of this study (see Chapter 7) have confirmed the increasing sensitivity of the routes core market to these prices.
2.15. In October 2012, CityJet unveiled a new three-tiered fare structure offering a high degree of flexibility, but accompanying changes in pricing and timetabling have been perceived locally as reducing the utility of the service, and many Dundee businesses claim to have significantly reduced their use of the route. There is little doubt that large numbers of passengers are now leaking from the catchment to Edinburgh (and to a lesser extent Aberdeen) to use less expensive London flights. Figure 2.2 shows the drop off in total passenger numbers flying to and from London City from within the Dundee Airport catchment area. They include passengers using the London City services from Edinburgh where fares can be materially cheaper. In terms of the Dundee route alone, passenger numbers have varied between 45-70,000 between 2000-09 before dropping off.
Figure 2.2: Traffic to London City from Dundee Area between 2000/01 and 2010/11
Birmingham and Belfast Services
2.16. On May 29, 2007, FlyWhoosh based in Birmingham, commenced services between Dundee and two previously un-served destinations - Birmingham and Belfast City (George Best) - using a 42 seat ATR42 based at Dundee. FlyWhoosh was essentially a virtual airline that sub-contracted White Eagle Aviation (WEA) of Poland to operation the route on its behalf, but ceased abruptly in December 2007.
2.17. Loganair, under their franchise agreement with Flybe, recommenced the FlyWhoosh routes in May 2008 using 34 seat Saab 340 aircraft with support under the then extant Route Development Fund developed by the Scottish Government. Three weekday return flights were initially operated between Dundee and Birmingham, with one return flight on Sundays. Frequency was later reduced to two weekday return flights to Birmingham, with the Friday morning rotation also being dropped. A daily weekday and Sunday return flight between Dundee and Belfast City Airport was also offered, but the Wednesday service was discontinued. Traffic levels looked reasonably encouraging for some time, as indicated by Figures 2.3 and 2.4 below.
Figure 2.3: Four Weekly Data for Dundee Birmingham Service 2007-11
Source: Airport Data
Figure 2.4: Four Weekly Data for Dundee-Belfast Service 2007-11
Source: Airport Data
2.18. During 2012, however, there was a marked turndown in patronage caused by continued difficult economic conditions and some of the more regular users of the services changing their travel patterns to use cheaper services available from Edinburgh. This resulted in Loganair discontinuing the flights to Belfast City and Birmingham on 2 December 2012, citing disappointing load factors.
Charter Flights
2.19. Ramsay World Travel from Dundee has and continues to sell holiday summer charters to Jersey for many years; in 1997 they also ran a summer season of weekly flights to Majorca using BAe 146 aircraft which had to land in Bournemouth/Southend to re-fuel. They do this on behalf of CI World Travel that run these weekend charters leasing an aircraft from main operators (nearly always without positioning costs). CI World Travel offer a 22-week season starting end May - September (every Saturday). In Dundee, they use Ramsay World Travel (almost exclusively), an arrangement which goes back 20 years and expect these charters to have 90% load factors or better. In the 2009 and 2010 seasons the Saturday service from Dundee to Jersey took the form of a Flybe scheduled flight using a Dash 8 Q400. It reverted to a charter in 2011 using an ATR42-500.
Commercial Aviation Activity at Dundee Airport
Passenger Volumes
2.20. As a result of Loganair's withdrawal of its two scheduled services in December 2012 passengers transiting the airport have slumped by more than 50% in December 2012 compared with the same month in 2011. The downturn since the highpoint of over 72,000 passengers in 2009, as shown in the graph below (Figure 2.5), is therefore set to accelerate as these new lower figures begin to be recorded in CAA returns, with the prospect passenger throughput could dip below 40,000 for the first time since the 1990s.
Figure 2.5: Annual Pax Throughput at Dundee 1992-2011
Source: CAA Statistics
Air Transport Movements
2.21. Total Air Transport Movements are shown in Figure 2.6. Much the largest component of overall traffic movements from the airport are, however, General Aviation rather than scheduled public transport movements.
Figure 2.6: Dundee Airport ATMs
Source: CAA Statistics
Loganair Aero-engineering
2.22. Loganair maintains an extensive infrastructure throughout Scotland to support the delivery of its services. It holds EASA 145 accreditation and undertakes major maintenance on its Saab 340 and Twin Otter aircraft at its Glasgow base. Loganair also acquired Caledonian Airborne Engineering of Aberdeen in 2008, and this operation now supports its own, and significant third party aero-engineering needs. BN2 Islander maintenance is undertaken at a further facility at Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. Line maintenance capability is maintained at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Kirkwall and Sumburgh and the airline provides contracted engineering support to a number of other airlines, mainly at Glasgow and Aberdeen, which has included Emirates, and BA CityFlyer.
2.23. Dundee is the home maintenance base for the Dornier 328 fleet. The Saab 340 is compatible with the Dundee maintenance hangar which is re-locatable Rubb hangar measuring 27m (90') x 30m (100') with associated modular maintenance offices and stores, built on a permanent foundation with full service provision for ScotAirways in 2000. It has a life expectancy of at least 25 years and a main door can accept aircraft of up to about 22 metres span, which means on occasion it has been used for Saab 340 maintenance, and is certainly suitable for that purpose.
Loganair Hangar at Dundee
General Aviation at Dundee Airport
Business Aviation
2.24. Dundee Airport is in an attractive location for private and chartered business aviation traffic due to its proximity to golf courses of world renown at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Gleneagles. Another source of such traffic is the very high value market in game shooting and fishing - most notably salmon fishing - in Perthshire and Angus.
2.25. Dundee is capable of handling a restricted range of business jet with transatlantic capability, notably the Gulfstream V and Bombardier Global Express, but also the full range of Falcon business jets, which are regular visitors and allow European destinations to easily be reached from Dundee.
2.26. Business aviation traffic was limited until the overlaying and transverse grooving of the runway was completed in 2002, after which movements increased from 158 in 2001-02 to 608 in 2008-09. Since then there has been a slight reduction due to the economic recession. HIAL believe the numbers of business aviation movements into and out of Dundee would be higher if the Royal Air Force did not accept business jets at Leuchars on an ad hoc basis, although they recognise that during the years when the British Open Golf Championship is played at one of the local courses, there is a spike in business jet demand that exceeds the capacity of Dundee's current apron to provide long-term parking.
Business Jets Parked at Dundee Airport
2.27. Historic data from the airport on Business Aviation activity in the period up to 2010/11 is summarised in Figure 2.7. Although the data now gathered by HIAL uses the calendar year rather than the financial year as previously, the latest figures for 2012 indicate Dundee airport received 159 domestic business aviation charters, 106 international business aviation charters (265 in total), and 43 domestic/37 international air taxi departures, which suggests a levelling off or slight up-turn, of the post-recession dip in business aviation activity. The airport also catered for 22 military flights and 4 official/diplomatic flights during the year.
Figure 2.7: Business Aviation Departures 2001/02 to 2010/11
Source: Airport Data - Includes flights categorised as Business Aviation and Air Taxis.Rotary Activity
2.28. Helicopter traffic is routinely accepted at Dundee, but there are no commercial helicopters currently based at the airport. When weather causes problems at Aberdeen Airport, North Sea servicing helicopters do sometimes use Dundee as a diversion aerodrome, and North Sea helicopters do occasionally carry out training at Dundee. The major Accident and Emergency facility at nearby Ninewells Hospital has its own helicopter pad, but rescue helicopters sometimes use Dundee Airport instead in unfavourable conditions - and especially when they are in need of fuel. There is occasional light rotary activity at the airport with some light training largely, originating from Perth and PDG also offering sightseeing flights.
2.29. Care is taken to ensure complaints from residents of Dundee's neighbouring West End are minimised with controlling and rationing any heavy rotary training activity. Airport management consider that any new rotary aircraft based at the airport, for example to service offshore wind farm arrays to built in the North Sea, would probably have to work within 'good neighbour' protocols, but these are deemed not to present insurmountable problems.
Ancillary Activities
2.30. Fixed wing medical flights use Dundee Airport when patients need to be flown to, or from, the nearby Ninewells Hospital. Other medical flights involve the transportation of transplant organs. Urgent medical flights are sometimes handled by Dundee Airport outwith its normal opening hours, if the necessary staff can be sourced at short notice.
2.31. Training flights by aircraft not based at Dundee, frequently carry out practice ILS approaches using Dundee's Instrument Approach because it is the only full ILS within easy reach of Central Scotland that is not subject to high demand by commercial movements. The Airport hosted 50 training and test flights and 38 flights by private operators in 2012.
2.32. In 2012 there were 17,500 'Aero Club' departures from the airport, many of these taking the form of commercial pilot training. This is apparently the highest GA volumes at any HIAL airport. As Figure 2.8 illustrates the activity does exhibit some seasonal variation.
Figure 2.8: Aero Club Departures at Dundee Airport in 2012
Source: Airport Data
Tayside Aviation
2.33. Tayside Aviation is a flight-training and aircraft service company based at Dundee Airport delivering high quality flight training which is recognised worldwide. Established in 1968, Tayside Aviation has trained hundreds of pilots who are now flying with many of the world's airlines. Tayside Aviation delivers flight training from Private Pilot License (PPL) level through to a full, airline ready commercial pilot's license. The company operates a fleet of 16 aircraft (listed as Cessna 152; Cessna 172; Grob 115; Piper Warrior; Piper Arrow; Piper Seneca), maintained by their own CAA approved aircraft maintenance and avionics facility at Dundee airport; it also own and operate Fife airport at Glenrothes, which is also home to the Tipsy Nipper restaurant and flying school.
2.34. Tayside Aviation holds the prestigious MoD contract to deliver flight training on behalf of the RAF Air Cadet pilot scheme. They are the only civilian organisation entrusted to deliver flight training to over 200 scholarships per year using the Grob 115 military trainer at Dundee airport. Tayside also deliver specialist scholarships for the Air League Educational Trust and the Ministry of Defence and the Hong Kong region of GAPAN contract their PPL scholarships to Tayside Aviation. In 2007, they invested in a state of the art flight simulator (Alsim AL200 MCC Flight Simulator), which delivers training towards the issue of a pilot's full instrument rating and the airline multi-crew courses.
Tayside Flying Club
2.35. The club has around 100 members from all over the UK, although the majority are based in Angus, Fife, Stirling & Perthshire. Most are flying members but many are former fliers or are people who have an interest in general aviation. There is one privately owned aircraft (a helicopter) based at the airport, the remainder belong to Tayside Aviation, which also provides the club's flight training.
Other Hangars and Facilities
2.36. A high quality maintenance hangar was built for Tayside Aviation by the Scottish Development Agency in 1982; the Company later bought it and it remains in use to this day.
2.37. The City Council acquired the large blue clad building to the east of Tayside Aviations operation when it was put on the market by the Scottish Water 8 years ago; it is currently used for equipment and stores by HIAL, a commercial use for the building has yet to be found, although there is now known to be genuine interest from a number of parties.
Figure 2.9: Dundee Airport
Dundee Courier