Airport authority appoints new chairwoman

A new chairwoman has been appointed by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial), the body responsible for Sumburgh Airport.

Lorna Jack is already a familiar face on the Hial board, however, having served as interim chairwoman since 2017. She has been on the Hial board since 2014.

But Ms Jack is already facing a baptism of fire in her new role.

Hial has attracted criticism in recent months over its decision to introduce car parking charges.

It has also been slammed over its move to centralise air traffic control services.

Ms Jack’s appointment has been given a lukewarm response from Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott, who says Hial have made the Islands Act “irrelevant”.

He says the airport authority has “done more to damage the process of consultation than any government of any persuasion since 1999”.

“I think you need to rethink how you act and communicate,” he told Ms Jack.

Meanwhile, Prospect – the union which represents engineers and other specialists in both public and private sectors – announced air traffic controllers were being balloted on industrial action as part of a dispute on pay.