Air Transportation in the Western Isles

Air Transportation in the Western Isles

On the Glasgow to Barra run, there are times when the crew forget to warn their passengers about the landing at Barra. The Islander is flying lower and lower over the sea and these planes are small enough for the passengers to have a view out of the pilot's window. There is no runway in sight and some of those folk who haven't been forewarned are starting to panic as the waves start to lap the wheels. White-knuckled passengers a few minutes later disembark onto the only beach airstrip left in the British Isles.

Barra's Traigh Mhor (Cockle Strand) airport has a listed timetable but in fact this is simply a rough guide - landings are completely dependant upon the tide - when the tide is out there are no flights.

There are three airports in the Hebrides nowadays: Stornoway, Benbecula and Barra. The first two commenced their lives as Royal Air Force bases which were turned over to public use alongside their military function.

Stornoway's important position of guarding the north west approaches has meant that money has been poured into the military facilities - the airport is quite unique for its location in that it has a runway long enough for a 747 to land. The public air terminal is endearingly underfunded and is more like a bus station - an appearance re-enforced by the Hebridean habit of everybody knowing everybody else and so knowing most people who come off of a flight.

Benbecula is a similar military airport which has a dual civilian role. Now that Benbecula is linked by causeway to both North and South Uist, it has become the airport for all of the Uists.

Barra is the last of the old style of beach landing strips - there used to be others - most notably Northton in South Harris.

Not exactly pioneers of air transportation, scheduled services to the Western Isles began in the 1930s. Before that decade, only long ferry trips linked the islands to the mainland. A number of airlines ran services but by the 1960s, Loganair had a monopoly before British Airways took Loganair over in the 1980s. The Hebrides are connected to the outside world using ATPs, modern turbo-prop aircraft which connect Stornoway and Benbecula with Inverness and Glasgow.

Only uneconomic Islanders (which has a fixed undercarriage and thus safe for beach landings) ply the Barra routes, connecting to Benbecula and Glasgow. Islanders were in fact used as far back as the 1950s but were replaced by the Twin Otter. The Twin Otter was used on the route for many years but spare parts were getting harder to find, being out of production, and so BA decided to upgrade to the Shorts 360 in 1995. The 360 has a bigger capacity and was going to make the Barra run faster and for British Airways (who are compelled to run the route due to government regulations) it was at last going to make the service profitable.

So in the early summer of 1995, a group of journalists were gathered together in Glasgow for the inaugural flight. It was going to cut the journey time by many minutes, carry more people, bring Barra into the nineties. Et cetera. Et cetera. The skies were gloomy that day and the wind blowing a gale. i.e. perfect conditions for the Islander and Twin Otter. The 360 stayed grounded due to 'adverse weather'. "There'll be a flight tomorrow" opined British Airways. "Come back and we'll try again". Tomorrow came and there was no flight. On the third day, the 360 finally made it. The journalists drifted away and the Barra people were left with a plane that was just not up to the job. Up to 50% of flights were cancelled due to the weather and the usually laid-back folk were beginning to get frustrated. Newspapers and mail were getting delivered days late and in despair, they invited a BBC radio reporter from Radio 4's Face The Facts up to hear their gripes about the service.

So the reporter came in on a perfect day's weather on the 360. He did some interviews, got both sides of the story from all involved and then headed off home. Or rather didn't. Nor on the next day. After 48 hours of inactivity in a Castlebay hotel, the reporter finally got back to Glasgow. The radio programme went out soon after. Within weeks, the Islander was back on the route.