I REFER to Peter Johnston's letter, which opposes a proposal to develop Elvington as an airport for York (November 24).

By the same token that someone living in London telling us what we think of Archbishop Sentamu is a bit dodgy, someone who comes from Bolton and admits to only visiting York "five or six times a year" is hardly in a position to lecture those of us who actually live here on how to get in and out of our city.

For the first three years after I moved to York in 2000 I did try to "let the train take the strain", getting to my regular meetings in London and further afield (around 30-50 trips a year).

During those years, rail travel became progressively more unreliable, unpleasant and expensive. So I gave up and tried flying instead.

Despite the drawback of getting to and from airports, I still believe it was the right decision.

The nearest airports to York take about an hour to get to. That's about 40 minutes longer than if you happen to live in the region's other major cities such as Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle.

I agree that there probably wouldn't be a viable market for a full range of European and intercontinental flights from Elvington. But I am sure that a similar level of service to that of Durham/Tees (i.e. scheduled flights to London and one other hub, plus one or two other regional and charter routes) would find a healthy customer base both from within York and the East Riding, which is similarly disadvantaged in terms of airport provision.

Leo Enticknap,

Bootham,

York.

Updated: 10:19 Friday, December 02, 2005