The air Road to the Isles is a fascinating one. A flight from Renfrew to Tiree on Tuesday was made in sufficient visibility to glimpse the shining contours of Loch Lomond and to get a magnificent view of the sea lochs and mountains of Argyll.

Holding to a course more to the south than usual against a head wind, the BEA Rapide passed between Jura and rocky Scarba … the low shapes of Tiree and Coll appear, and soon a landing is made at Reef Airport … The flight had lasted an hour and a quarter. The transition from Glasgow to an Atlantic islet with a population of 1100 is striking. From the densely populated Paisley Road West and the factories, docks and ‘prefabs’ of the outlands of Glasgow is a far cry to Tiree. The aeroplane quickly links the two, but air travel has not altered the islanders. They remain individualistic and conservative in outlook. They do not care much for monopolies in trade or nationalisation of industry. That is one reason given for the present decline in island bookings on this BEA route. The present daily flights—one in and one out—might suffice for the needs of the community if the aircraft flew full, but they are said to be frequently half empty.

Difficulties in booking are partly blamed for this. When Scottish Airways operated the service the booking agent, Mr Colin MacPhaii, would send a note to Renfrew by the afternoon plane, and confirmation of the booking would be received the next morning. Now there is a time lapse of from five to seven days, in some cases longer.

From the number of complaints of misbooking—planes either overfilled or underfilled—it would seem essential to reform the system radically. What is naturally a complex process, particularly on the Hebridean run, on which three islands are served on the way to Stornoway, requires simplification. At present it is a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, with Renfrew as the central kitchen.

Some islanders—especially since the steamer service to Oban was improved—have given up trying to get a seat on the plane; others have discovered that by meeting it they may be lucky enough to find an empty seat. Tiree’s allocation of two seats is held not to be enough. With the introduction of the summer schedules, booking agents at island airports will have a quota of seats in their control, instead of the present allocations being controlled from Renfrew. This should be an improvement.

The regularity of services, important because of connections which have to be caught at Glasgow, is also questioned. Time was when the clocks of Tiree could be set by the arrival and departure of the daily plane. That is not so now, it is said, although it has to be confessed that, in the case of the Hebrides, as air travel is so much quicker than by sea, some delays may be accepted without undue demur. Better a little late and safe than never to get there! Formerly, too, the pilots on the route were known to the public. Today, there seem to be always so many new faces in the cockpit.

Holidaymakers from the mainland will fill the increased number of seats which are to be available during the summer months. The summer schedule comes into operation on April 19, when the morning plane will leave Renfrew at 9.25, reach Tiree at 10.35, and end its journey at Benbecula at noon. Stornoway will be reached by a new Dakota service: Glasgow-Benbecula-Stornoway-Inverness. The return flight on the Hebrides run will leave Tiree at 3.20pm and reach Renfrew at 4.25pm. From May 31 there will also be a direct Renfrew-Tiree service, leaving Renfrew at 2pm, arriving Tiree 3.15pm and leaving Tiree at 3.30pm, arriving Renfrew 4.35pm.

Tiree’s popularity with visitors is increasing. The island, though bare, is green and pleasant, with an excellent sunshine record. There is no air mail service, and newspapers arrive usually long after the events they record—but these deficiencies may not be of great concern in times of holiday.

Mr MacPhail has been airline agent on the island since Northern and Scottish Airways opened the route in 1935. Before the late war, aircraft landed on a grass strip. Now Tiree has a large airport with three runways. Tiree has thus benefited from wartime occupation by the RAF, but at considerable cost to the nation, and its maintenance as a civil airport at once raises a controversial issue (which applies to all other island aerodromes that are now under the wing of the Ministry of Civil Aviation [MCA]. In addition to BEA’s staff of two (agent and assistant) almost 40 persons are employed at the airport. Nineteen of these are in the works and building department of the Air Ministry, and part of their duty is to supervise a large colony of empty Nissen huts which are falling to pieces. Broken sheets of rusty corrugated iron lie here and there or flap noisily in the perpetual wind. The MCA staff consists of a traffic control officer, communications and radio staff, clerical grades, meteorological section, caretakers of billets and crash crew. All that for one or two aircraft in a day. One estimate, knowledgeable if not expert, is that the airport costs in the region of £20,000 annually to maintain. Half or more of that figure would probably be conservative. Its revenue, in contrast, is minute.

The islanders regard it as ‘suicidal expenditure’. It is impossible, however, to return to the days of grass landing fields and ‘one-man bands’ at airports. It might be possible to find a compromise between the two extremes, and one calculation is that all the necessary work at Tiree, including the valuable meteorological section, could be done by five people—two ‘met’, one ambulance and two fire tender. The question that poses itself is: Would the public be easy in its mind if the rest of the technical staff were withdrawn? The official attitude is that the airport is there, is being used, and must be manned according to the regulation standards.

In contrast, at the next stop north of Tiree, at the island of Barra, landings are made on the beach, with one man, the BEA agent, there to do all that is necessary … Looking at the MCA establishment, and noting BEA’s intricate structure, they feel it is small wonder that the corporation makes a loss and that the bill to the taxpayer is so large.
(The Scotsman, 10 April 1948, 3)