Barra Airport has recently been named as the second most stunning airport approach in the world. Private air charter Private Fly had compiled a list of 32 unusual airport approaches around the globe for travel fans and pilots to vote as the best to land on. The tiny Barra airstrip in the Outer Hebrides, which is only accessible at low tide, was competing alongside airports such as Amsterdam Schiphol, Bermuda, Hong Kong, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro. The poll has generated worldwide interest in Barra Airport, with enquiries from media crews as far afield as Brazil and South Korea.

Michael Galbraith, station manager at Barra Airport said: “We are delighted that Barra has been voted one of the world’s most scenic airport landings.”

Angus MacNeil, SNP MP for Na H-Eileanan An lar (Western Isles), is the party’s Westminster spokesman for transport, and, as a Barra resident, is possibly the airport’s most regular customer, flying in and out around 50 times a year.

He said: “It is an iconic airstrip, which deserves its status as one of the best in the world”.

Barra Airport opened in 1936 and is a short runway airport situated in the bay of Traigh Mhor – Gaelic for ‘big beach’ – at the northern edge of the island of Barra.  The airport is served by Twin Otter aircraft and flight schedules are subject to tidal conditions – at high tide, the runway is under water.