The Scottish Government's vaccine rollout plan has been branded "woefully inadequate" and too slow to help struggling travel firms.
That was the message from the chief executive of Edinburgh Airport today in a scathing attack on SNP ministers over a perceived lack of support for the aviation sector.
Gordon Dewar told members of the Scottish Parliament's Covid committee the policy of asking passengers flying into the country to self-isolate upon arrival had simply not worked.
But it was vaccines which the airport boss was most unsatisfied with, claiming ministers should be working with the private sector to speed-up the number of Scots who can receive the jab.
“We've looked at the designs that they're looking at for their vaccine rollouts, and they are woefully inadequate," he told MSPs.
“They will not deliver a wide vaccine capability until the back end of next year as it stands.
“Put this in context - they're not even attempting to start vaccines at mass drive through centres until February.
“I genuinely think we've got an extremely high probability that come March, we will have availability of vaccines - potentially multiple vaccines in fridges in Scotland - and no method of delivering them while people are still dying of Covid.
“And there will be no prospect of taking away travel restrictions.”
Passenger numbers at all Scottish airports have plummeted in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic.
But the aviation industry has accused ministers of sharing mixed messages with the public, with current travel restrictions meaning it's legal for Scots living in a level three area to book a flight - but it's against the law for them to drive to an airport elsewhere in the country.
Nicola Sturgeon further stoked the travel industry's anger when yesterday she warned the public to hold off from booking holidays abroad next summer.
Dewar added: "Governments have been a little bit disingenuous about some of this, in the sense they are saying you shouldn't travel, but you can.
"If governments had the courage or conviction to introduce a travel ban - which is what a quarantine is in all but name - they should do that and bear the commercial cost.
"What we got is this situation where we have airlines fighting for their very survival and are being criticised for not providing refunds for travel they are desperate to offer.
"Even worse, we have consumers who are told they are allowed to fly to Tenerife but you're not allowed to drive to the airport.
"We are getting very mixed messages and it is not well-based on the evidence."
