Although the company has blamed industrial action by air traffic controllers in Europe, Inverness tourism leaders remain unconvinced.

They fear that faced with having to make last-minute alternative arrangements, would-be holidaymakers will stay away.

Richard Paxton, chairman of the Inverness and District Bed and Breakfast Association, said August was one of the busiest months for tourism in the Highlands.

"This is a beautiful part of the world," he said. "We have to capitalise on everything in August. I would be concerned about flights not coming. If this starts now, when is it going to stop?"

He described the excuse of industrial action as a "lame duck" reason for the cancellation of the Inverness/Bristol flights.

"Why is it not affecting Gatwick flights?" he queried. "You would imagine they would be affected first. Is it they have found a more lucrative flight for that plane?"

Fraser Peterkin, the chairman of the Inverness Hotels Association, was equally concerned about the knock-on impact. "I think any cutting of services to Inverness will have a detrimental effect on the area," he said.

"I was not aware of any of this. We are going to have to look into this."

Inverness passengers travelling south have also been hit by the cancellations.

Grahame Couttie, of Balloch, booked a weekend break in Bristol for his wife and daughter about three months ago. But just 36 hours before they were due to fly down last Friday, he received an e-mail from easyJet to say the return flight on Sunday evening had been cancelled. "We had about 36 hours to decide what they were going to do," he said.

"I telephoned easyJet on three separate occasions and got three people who said it was not cancelled.

"One part of the organisation says it is cancelled and another part says it is not cancelled."

He finally got confirmation from Inverness Airport that the flight was not operating. He then discovered Monday's easyJet flight to Inverness was fully booked while there was just one available seat on the Tuesday flight. Instead, his wife and daughter made a three-hour train journey from Bristol to Gatwick where they took Sunday evening's Flybe flight to Inverness.

"This is a slap in the face for Inverness, or people in the south-west wanting to come to the Highlands for a holiday - they cannot fly up at a weekend," he said.

Pat Hayden, chairman of the Inverness Airport consultative committee, was shocked to hear about the weekend cancellations. "This is a big travelling time," she said.

"My understanding is that this route is very popular. It is an all-year-round route. You have to question why they are stopping a flight which is virtually full.

"I am very disappointed. I think it is dreadful. It is no way to treat people especially when they have done all the right things and booked well in advance."

An easyJet spokeswoman said the reason why the route was chosen for cancellation over the next two weekends was because passengers could travel by other means, including road and rail.

The company was sorry to hear about passengers affected by Sunday's cancellation of the Bristol to Inverness flight.

"EasyJet has looked to relax some of its schedule, in order to minimise the impact and knock on effect of the industrial action by air traffic control in Europe (France, Spain and Greece)," she said.

"We will always send an e-mail and when possible a text, to keep our passengers informed.

"Those affected will be offered a refund or a free transfer to the next available flight."

v.sweeney@inverness-courier.co.uk

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