IAIN Macwhirter’s column on the proposed new runway at either Heathrow or Gatwick (“Rough with the smooth in wooing of the SNP”, The Herald, October 20) was extremely interesting but did not go far enough in looking for alternative solutions. As an airline business traveller averaging more than 60 flights per annum I would like to offer my opinion.

Europe has four airport hubs, my favoured choice being Amsterdam Schiphol, with the other three being Frankfurt, Paris Charles De Gaulle and London Heathrow. If air travellers do not live within easy reach of these airports they will be obliged to take two flights to their destination. For example, today I am travelling to Stavanger, Norway - via Amsterdam. Next month I will travel to Houston, Texas - via Amsterdam. Travelling first south to go north, or first east to go west is far from ideal.

As a business traveller you put up with it, as a tourist traveller you simply don’t do it; you will find a tourist destination with one flight only. The sky above southern England, northern France and the Netherlands is saturated. Europe doesn’t need another runway in London; Europe needs another European hub, but in a separate locale from the four current hubs

Edinburgh and Glasgow airports at just 30 miles apart, and competing for the same limited, short to medium-haul flights are monuments to stupidity and neither comes close to being a national airport. Both are in prime housebuilding locations and should be bulldozed and sold off with the proceeds being used to help fund a real national airport on the Carse of Stirling with fast train links to both Glasgow and Edinburgh similar to the bullet train that runs from Gardemoen Airport to Oslo in Norway. By pooling the flights which currently fly into Glasgow and Edinburgh and by attracting Scandinavian traffic flying west to the Americas, a new airport would gain critical mass and attract direct flights from all over the world. This would have an additional knock on effect of boosting tourism in Scotland and could also lead to a new national airline in a new European hub.

What we need is imagination, not another London runway.

Andrew J Beck,

3 Andrew Crescent, Stenhousemuir.

IT was interesting to read the comments of Stewart Wingate (Letters, October 21), supporting the thoughts of Sir John Elvidge, on the subject of direct air links being vital for a nation - and so he should, since both are employed by the same company that owns and operates Edinburgh and Gatwick Airports, the latter being a contender for the third runway in the south-east of England.

He further complains about the southern monopoly. Presumably he is referring to Heathrow, with its air links to Scotland, but he fails to point out that, the break-up of BAA, by the Competition Commission, was done to create more competition amongst the airlines and to where and from where they decide to fly. Not a lot seems to have changed.

Mike Dooley,

52 Auchendoon Crescent, Ayr.