ONCE upon a time, East Lothian bid fair to be the aviation capital of Scotland.

And I don’t just mean when East Fortune launched the first ever Transatlantic crossing (by the R34) or when we hosted Second World War bases there, at Drem and at Macmerry. But more than 50 years ago, East Fortune also had its runway extended across the Smiddy road to become Edinburgh Airport for the best part of a year.

I was thinking of this as I struggled through 10 minutes of chaotic security, sweeping curves of unavoidable duty-free and endless corridors to the gate at overcrowded EDI – as Edinburgh Airport is now known to its pals.

Global Infrastructure Partners bought it off (Spanish-owned) BAA five years ago for a cool £807m. It’s little wonder it has been turned into a cash cow rather than getting infrastructure investment.

But the same trip took me to Heathrow, also owned by a faceless consortium in it for the profit (FGP TopCo Ltd), who have just won(?) the battle for a third runway. Leave aside the environmental and social impact; they can’t run the two they have – not because of air movements but because of the Heath Robinson-esque pig’s breakfast of terminals they operate.

Not only is each of its five terminals a series of amended afterthoughts whose gate layout defies reason, but passing through the place involves changing among them. Every real-world hub like Schiphol, Copenhagen or Los Angeles boasts a sensible layout of gates and smooth system of transfers between.

Heathrow’s involves a fleet of buses that plumb one-lane subterranean warrens and servicing innards, all showing the place at its grungy worst.

Why not build our own world hub – not in East Lothian, but around Larbert/Airth?

Next to rail links all over Scotland, slap between its main cities, we could snatch much North America business from Schiphol, Copenhagen and Heathrow while boosting feed-in links to/from Europe.

Why not? Every flight to the US West Coast passes over there. So our flights would be 400 miles closer and an hour shorter. Of course, the bill would be at least £5bn, or over three times the Queensferry Crossing. But that’s half what the Government is about to spend on Heathrow Zoo just to squeeze another runway in.

And if all that’s too wildly ambitious for you, why not lure Ryanair/easyJet by refurbing East Fortune into a low-cost hub, re-open the station there and really put East Lothian on the tourist map?