§ 35. Lady Tweedsmuirasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what general direction he has given to British European Airways concerning the purchase and use of Viscounts on Scottish internal routes north of Edinburgh and Glasgow, in view of the restricted size of certain of his airports in the North of Scotland.
§ Mr. HayNone, Sir. British European Airways is considering a plan to use Viscounts on certain Scottish routes. These will not be new purchases but drawn from aircraft at present employed on international routes. In view of the airport problems involved, the matter is now being discussed between British European Airways and my Department.
§ Lady TweedsmuirCould any indication be given as to when the Scottish internal routes will have a Viscount service? The test flights of the Viscount at all the main airports north of the Scottish industrial belt were successfully concluded two or three years ago, and we have now reached a stage where passenger traffic will not increase while passengers have to use Dakotas and wait long intervals to get connections both at Edinburgh and Glasgow?
§ Mr. HayAs I said, we have a problem of accommodating the larger aircraft at some existing airports, and that is what we are discussing with B.E.A. I think that it would be rather premature of me to try to give a date when the Viscount will come into service on the Scottish routes, but we will certainly press on with the matter as quickly as we can.