Airlines axe eight routes from Scottish airports

The airline has withdrawn the routes from Edinburgh to Carcassone, Nîmes and Poitiers in France and Santiago de Compostela in Spain and Turin in Italy, and Glasgow Prestwick to Marseille in France.

A spokesman for Ryanair told The Herald the move comes after a review of seasonal routes.

Glasgow-based Loganair has cut routes from Inverness to Birmingham and Inverness to Dublin and suspended routes including Dundee to Kirkwall and Aberdeen to Oslo. It cited costs and “soft market conditions”.

Also this week, however, WestJet revealed it is launching new routes between Edinburgh Airport and the Canadian cities of Toronto and Halifax, in addition to its service between the Scottish capital and Calgary.

‘Beloved’ Scottish fish and chip shop for sale

A fish and chip shop operated by a husband and wife team for six years has been put on the market, with offers around £60,000 sought for the leasehold interest.

Graham Sibbald described the fish and chip shop and restaurant as immaculately presented (Image: Graham + Sibbald)

The Marina in Arbroath, which has a 52-cover restaurant, has a harbour-side position and features a “panoramic” balcony seating area. Property agent Graham + Sibbald said the business had been “passionately operated”.

Scottish Government challenges Westminster to support key industry

The Scottish Government has thrown its weight behind calls to slash value-added tax in the tourism and hospitality sector.

The Westminster Government previously cut VAT for the industry at the depths of the pandemic, reducing it to 5% during lockdown in 2020 before gradually returning its standard level of 20% in April last year. Power over VAT is reserved to Westminster (Image: Newsquest)

Richard Lochhead, minister for small business, innovation, tourism, and trade, has written to the UK Government urging it to consider cutting the tax as the industry grapples with tough trading conditions. It adds weight to calls which have been mounting in the sector for Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt to reduce the burden of VAT in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.

Energy giant hiring 350 in Scotland 

Scottish Gas is hiring an additional 350 people at its call centre in Edinburgh to assist customers struggling with their energy bills through the coming winter.

Like others across the industry, Scottish Gas experienced a spike in call volumes during last winter’s energy crisis that has led to a boom in profits for the major domestic suppliers (Image: Scottish Gas)

The company, a subsidiary of energy giant Centrica, said the roles will all be in post by the end of this year with continuing hiring taking place in January as part of a campaign to move all of its call centre operations to the UK. In total, Centrica said it is hiring more than 700 people across its customers service centres in Edinburgh, Leeds, Cardiff, Stockport and Leicester.