Letter: Flight of fancy

Kevin Lang (Letters, 27 December) freely admits he is "not a long-suffering frequent flyer", but he is quick to defend BAA's near-monopoly and performance at Edinburgh Airport. Could this be the same Kevin Lang who was head of communications for BAA Scotland until one year ago?

BAA has continually claimed that Glasgow and Edinburgh have a "naturally segmented marketplace" and, therefore, do not compete against each other. This is an absurd assertion to all those passengers who need to travel to BAA's Glasgow because the flights are simply not available at BAA Edinburgh. An Edinburgh Airport free of BAA would be able to compete with Glasgow and offer an additional choice of flights, which would increase passenger and retail revenues.

Mr Lang may be right that low-cost airlines require lower landing fees.

However, landing fees are only a very small part of the "customer experience" of flying. Parking fees and BAA's hyper- inflationary increases are now a significant element proportion of travel costs.

One thing Mr Lang and I agree on is that the airports have "not been under the control of the government since the 1980s privatisation", when a government-owned near-monopoly was replaced by a privatised near-monopoly.

MICHAEL N CROSBY

Little Compston

Muiravonside, By Linlithgow