Letters: There are encouraging signs, but Glasgow needs to work harder to sell the city as an attractive destination – HeraldScotland

THE Glasgow city region is Scotlands economic powerhouse and Glasgow Airport has always been proud to be the regions principal gateway. The success of the airport and the city are intertwined, with the connectivity we provide playing a vital role in driving prosperity, supporting our tourism industry and helping our businesses compete on the world stage.

We have a strong track record of working hand-in-hand with our city and national partners to develop compelling propositions for airlines to choose Glasgow over competing European cities. Prior to Covid, this team approach delivered tangible results, with Glasgow Airport recording the busiest year in its history in 2017 when almost 10 million passengers travelled through our doors.

In the same year, Glasgow Airport exported more than 1.7 billion worth of goods, more than any other Scottish airport, and we remain second only to Grangemouth when it comes to the value of goods exported from Scottish ports.

Like every part of society, our airports were brought to an almost complete standstill by the coronavirus pandemic. It impacted livelihoods, it impacted airlines, with many sadly going out of business, and it impacted the connectivity we had spent years building up. It is no understatement to say this pandemic has set us back decades. However, at Glasgow Airport we are firmly focused on plotting our recovery and Im pleased to say we are already seeing positive signs.

Within the past month we have welcomed the new Flybe, Jet2.com has confirmed it will add a seventh based aircraft, TUI has announced expansion plans for Glasgow and one of our longest-serving airlines, Icelandair, has come back on board. In May, WestJet will relaunch flights to Halifax and introduce a new service to Toronto which is also served by Air Transat. Airlines such as easyJet, Lufthansa, Vueling and Transavia are all adding European cities back on to our destination map and Emirates is once again providing daily flights to Dubai.

There is news on all this in our High Flyer magazine.

This is all hugely encouraging but there is no escaping the fact the aviation landscape has changed. As we emerge from the pandemic there are fewer airlines with fewer aircraft; however, there are the same number of airports across Europe. This means, as a city, we will need to work even harder to sell Glasgow as an attractive destination and restore the connectivity that will drive our recovery.

It is widely accepted that a region with strong connectivity can expect to enjoy increased levels of trade, tourism and prosperity. It is also the case that airlines fly to cities, not airports. Now, more than ever, is the time to reinvigorate our team approach to route development and destination marketing.

By doing so, we can reposition our city, put it back on the map and ultimately attract investment, visitors and airlines back to Glasgow.

Derek Provan, Chief Executive, AGS Airports.

WHY SCHOOL UNIFORMS MATTER

TO what gallery are the advocates of the abolition of school uniforms, who have again been voluble lately, playing?

The choice is between compelling pupils to wear school uniform or to allow them to come to schools in outfits of their own choosing. Release from the uniform would bring "individuality", creating unease and tension with the competing styles and the desire to outdo others in their dress mode as well as fostering informal group styles to set those groups apart from one another.

Such freedom would add to the long-term expenses of parents, as their offspring would have to have different outfits every day which would have to satisfy the critical comments of peer pressure, failure to do so bringing derision and ridicule down upon the heads of those who offend what the fashion of the day demands.

While the initial cost may be high, the everyday wearing of school uniform banishes the much more costly daily outfit dress competition, which would come with the abandonment of the uniform

It is so much easier for identification of those who attend schools where uniforms are in force when they go on school trips or are seen within the neighbourhood where they are expected to maintain the high standards of their school in public.

With a uniform, the individual is seen as part of a community, the standards of which the individual is expected to embrace, represent and take a pride in.

Those who are once again advocating the elimination of school uniforms should reconsider their suggestions

School uniforms aim at creating a sense of community along with the observance of the purpose of school education. It focuses pupils on the importance of the community for the individual.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

END THE TRAGEDY OF ASBESTOS

HAVING recently lost a dear friend of more than 60 years from mesothelioma my wife and I found it particularly poignant to read the archive headline from five years ago, Pupils at risk of exposure to asbestos illnesses (Past and Present, The Herald, April 21). Our friend had taught in an old school building all her teaching years.

Hopefully measures are in place to reduce the risk of asbestos-related cancer in todays schoolchildren and in recruits to the teaching profession.

Sadly too late for the more than 200 teachers who have died from mesothelioma in the last 10 years in the UK, their risk reported as five times their average peers'.

R Russell Smith, Largs.

BUCHANAN HALL OF FAME

CLAIRINCH! Clairinch! That is the name of an island in Loch Lomond and also the slogan or war cry of the Buchanans . The Buchanan clan, after some considerable time, now have a new clan chief ("Ancient clan welcomes its first chief for more than 340 years", The Herald, April 22). One of the most famous Buchanans was, of course, James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States of America.

Let us congratulate the new chief John Michael Bailie-Hamilton Buchanan and wish him well. It has been a long wait.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

HATS OFF TO CALMAC

THERE has been much criticism of Calmac for probably well-justified reasons. We were in Islay recently and things could not have been better. Everything ran exactly to schedule. As I am very disabled we were taken precisely to the door to the lift which ran up to the top floor where there was a table for the disabled with a good view. The meal was well presented and tasty. There was also a wheelchair which my daughter could push. It was was the same both ways.

Miller Frondigoun, Glasgow.

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Letters: There are encouraging signs, but Glasgow needs to work harder to sell the city as an attractive destination - HeraldScotland