Inverness terminal aims to win mail contract

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Inverness terminal aims to win mail contract currently held at RAF Kinloss

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Inverness Airport will extend its opening hours to allow night flying if it wins a major contract for mail deliveries, it emerged yesterday.

Post for the Highlands and Moray is currently flown to RAF Kinloss, but the base’s contract for the service expires next year.

A spokesman for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial), which runs Inverness Airport, revealed it was “keen” to clinch a deal with Royal Mail.

It would mean the airport at Dalcross, which currently operates between 6.30am and 9.30pm, staying open during the early hours of the morning when flights carrying mail would arrive.

The spokesman said: “The current contract for mail deliveries in the Highlands expires in 12 months and Inverness Airport can confirm that it is keen to attract this business.

“At the moment there is no timescale for the introduction of extended hours at Inverness Airport.”

He said Hial had no plans to increase passenger flights outwith current airport opening hours, but that the airport is “always looking to increase passenger flights within existing airport opening hours”.

Although no timescale has been announced, Hial is already advertising for firefighters and crew managers who would be required in case of emergencies involving mail deliveries.

It is seeking people to work between 2am and 6am five nights a week “as we expand our opening hours to meet the demand for Royal Mail flights”.

Applicants will be interviewed from April 26, even though the mail flights would not start arriving at Inverness until next spring.

The Hial spokesman added: “The training for firefighters is lengthy and Inverness Airport needs to be in a position to provide fully-trained and equipped firefighters if they win this contract in the future.”

A spokeswoman for RAF Kinloss said it received a directive from the UK Government for mail deliveries.

Post has been flown to the base since at least 2000, with the contract, which is funded by Royal Mail, last being re-negotiated in 2007.

Under the existing arrangement, mail for the Highlands and Moray arrives on two or three planes in the early hours of the morning.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “As with any contract, Royal Mail speaks to a variety of parties when an existing contract is near its conclusion, particularly if there are solutions potentially available which may help us improve our quality of service to our customers.

“We won't comment any further on confidential commercial matters.”



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