S

eptember 1, 2017 was a highly

signi cant day in the history of

Scotland’s Loganair airline.

On that date it emerged as a

solo enterprise, returning the company livery

to its aircraft, after nearly 25 years of  ying

the colours of British Airways and Flybe – its

previous partner organisations.

Loganair’s managing director Jonathan

Hinkles explained the business conditions

in which the move was made: “We’d been

in discussion with Flybe about a new and

updated franchise agreement. The  nancial

terms to continue were not something that

we could live with because they were going

to increase very signi cantly. As we went

through those discussions, we looked at the

alternative of doing it ourselves and thought

there was quite a lot of logic in it. The

announcement, though, was unexpected

in its timing, because Flybe felt obliged to

make a disclosure to the stock market, so

we had literally half an hour’s notice that it

was going to happen.

“There has been a lot of work to ensure

the reservation system joins in with all of the

check-in and airport systems, and [it]  ows

through to producing weight and balance

and load sheets for each individual  ight,” the

MD remarked. We had to build all of those

systems from scratch and had to have them

operational by September 1 [2017], which we

did. Loganair decided a rebrand was needed

across the aircraft, crew uniforms, check-in

and more and this too was in place within the

required timescale.

CUSTOMER FOCUS

Having started from scratch, without a mature

distribution system or brand, Hinkles is thrilled

with the way his airline has progressed: “The

public reaction to our new brand was very

positive. Also, we were able to do a lot of

things from a service point of view that we

couldn’t do under Flybe, such as opening

online check-in four days before the  ight

instead of just 24 hours out. We worked very

hard to create a brand that has resonance

through Scotland, from our cabin crew

uniforms, to the fact that we have Harris

tweed headrests on all the aircraft.”

The airline is offering  ights from major

airports such as Manchester, Glasgow and

Norwich, with connecting  ights to Islay,

Fair Isle, Barra and Campbeltown. The

Orkney inter-island service was added into

the online booking system for the summer

2018 season. “Altogether we  y to more

airports in the UK than any other airline.

We are also seeing that the routes south

are bene tting from the connections we

have within the highlands and islands,

which is something we are obviously keen

to encourage,” he continued.

Along with bmi regional (now  ybmi),

Loganair is owned by Airline Investments

LOGANAIR

A NEW BEGINNING

couldn’t do under Flybe, such as opening couldn’t do under Flybe, such as opening

Scotland’s Loganair airline has been operating once again under its own

brand for just 12 months. Bernie Baldwin talks to the airline’s managing

director about what a difference a year has made amid its longer term plans.

60 Aviation News incorporating Jets October 2018