According to a new survey, the Inverness Airport is losing passengers to other airports in Scotland because there is no direct service to Heathrow from the airport.

The new survey by SCDI, Inverness Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses showed that businesses require the ability to get to London and back on the same day. EasyJet is planning to fly between Inverness and Gatwick after it acquired Flybe slots at the airports. Flybe directly blamed the air passenger duty for forcing it to sell slots at a busy London airport.

Flybe operates 19 flights a week between the Highland city and Gatwick and the services will be available till March. Easyjet has hinted that it is not likely to operate all the same flights when it takes over the slots. SCDI's Highlands & Islands manager Fraser Grieve said that the services by Easyjet might be able to address the issue of maintaining connectivity with London.

Stewart Nicol, chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, said, “The loss of the Heathrow service many years ago was a real blow and the result that over 50,000 passengers a year could be lost from Inverness to other Scottish airports demonstrates how vital it is that we protect our current Gatwick link.”