Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of tourism agency VisitScotland has called for the return of public funding to help attract new airlines to fly to Edinburgh.
Roughead wants the route development fund (RDF), which incentives airlines to set up a new route, could help entice new airlines to Edinburgh Airport to help link the Scottish capital city to the wider world. Emirates benefited from the RDF in 2004 when it set a route between Glasgow and Dubai. However the RDF has since been srapped by the Scottish National Party when it gained power in 2007.
"There are routes I would like to see come into Edinburgh: some long haul and some short haul,” says Roughead. "It would be nice to see, for example, routes from Emirates, opening Edinburgh up to the east. And Canada is an interesting area; the same with some of the German and French routes we would like to see. It is not a huge amount (of new routes we want) because we have to bear in mind the capacity at the airport but we have ongoing discussions with BAA on who would bring the biggest benefit.