Holmes concerned over airport proposals

In a statement, he said: “We need to ensure that Northern Ireland is ‘open for business’. Decreasing the number of airports will only make travel here more difficult and more expensive, due to lack of competition.”

Referring to the British Airline Pilots Association’s opinion that the Province should only have one airport, councillor Holmes said that “Building business links to the rest of the United Kingdom should be our main priority, not decreasing them, and making it harder for companies to invest.

These routes allow for the expansion of local and national business, helping in the creation of jobs in places like Coleraine, which are in desperate need.”

“Access to the rest of the UK and in particular Heathrow is our ability to plug into the global business community will be diminished if there are no direct connections into the UK’s national hub.

“The more difficult it is for Northern Ireland to access the rest of the UK, the more difficult it is for business people to build the outward looking, export driven economy which Northern Ireland needs to continue developing.”