a couple of aircraft to keep the
world of Saab 2000s turning.
Issues like that are not helpful
in managing costs. They cause
real concern about the continued
viability of operating the 2000. It’s
not as acute with the Saab 340
because there are many more in
service, so there’s a wider parts
and supplier base.”
Two of the airline’s routes with
the Twin Otter and the Islander,
Glasgow-Barra and Westray-Papa Westray
respectively, are both world-renowned
services among aviation enthusiasts – the
former for its beach landings and the latter
as the shortest scheduled ight in the world
with a block time of two minutes. Hinkles
acknowledged that a certain amount of
traffic is generated purely by those who want
to say they’ve own the routes.
“Though the primary objective on both
is local community service, where we do
have capacity available we make use of it.
On Glasgow-Barra over the winter, we’re
mandated to operate two ights a day; we
offer a sightseer trip between December and
March and carried about 750 people on that
last year. It was about £79 for a day trip out
on the rst ight and back on the second. All
of the seats made available were taken up.
“It’s one of the routes that books rst for
next summer because capacity is so limited.
Tourists who want to do that, to land on the
beach, do book early, which then presents
challenges when it comes to things like
patient travel for people from Barra coming
to the mainland for hospital treatment. So
we have to add in extra ights late on to
make sure that the essential transport links
are maintained.
“Up in the Orkneys, we occasionally
add on extra ights in the summer if there’s
the demand for a sightseeing service. The
core routes are only available for sightseers
to book seats within 24 hours if we still
have availability. Sometimes, if we get
a lot of calls, we’ll put on a sightseer the
next day. We can help to grow tourism into
places like the Orkneys, which will add to
the economies of the smaller isles – and
that’s positive.”Loganair has one jet in its eet, an
Embraer ERJ 145 which has been operating
on its network since July 2017 under an
agreement with ybmi. It has been ying
the Inverness-Manchester and Inverness-
Dublin routes, and from this summer, the
new Inverness-Bergen service as well. The
aircraft will transition from a wet lease to
operating under Loganair’s own AOC as the
type is being added to its own certi cate in
October this year. A second ERJ 145 will
then follow to replace the rst Saab 2000 to
be returned to the lessor. The new addition
will be operate Glasgow-Stornoway services
from later in the year. It is also planned to
replace the Dornier 328s on services to and
from Norwich in early 2019.FURTHER OPPORTUNITIES
A new opportunity just south of the border in
England is being developed in conjunction
with the Stobart Group, owner of Carlisle
Lake District Airport. Loganair has signedup to operate services from the
airport to London Southend
(also owned by Stobart), as well
as ights to Dublin and Belfast
City. Originally ights were set
to start as part of the summer
2018 schedules, but construction
work and regulatory issues have
forced the airport owner to push
scheduled commercial services
back to spring 2019. Loganair
says it remains fully committed to
the partnership with Stobart.
Whilst all this programmed work is
promising, Hinkles pointed out that charter
trips is a hugely important and growing
market for the carrier. “We now have four
Saab 340 freighters dedicated to a long-
term deal with Royal Mail. That was a new,
ve-year contract which started in February- We also have aircraft devoted to oil
and gas industry customers in Aberdeen.
These are xed-wing types up to Shetland,
to meet CHC or Babcock Mission Critical
Helicopter [Offshore] services at Sumburgh,
taking people out to the rigs. That’s been a
really big growth area for us over the past
two years.
“If you look at the traffic through
Sumburgh, it’s gone absolutely wild – it’s
actually our second busiest airport on the
network after Glasgow. We have 119 weekly
rotations in and out of Sumburgh. And we
handle about 70-80 helicopter ights a week,
providing the ground handling for CHC and
Babcock on the helicopter side. So, it’s an
integrated product. We’ve now got a team of
40 employed in Shetland doing that.
“On certain days of the week, between our
scheduled service, the Royal Mail operation
and the charters, we’ve got up to 19 ights
a day each way between Aberdeen and
Sumburgh. It’s possibly the most frequently
own domestic air route in the UK.
“On the Royal Mail operations, we use
two Saab 340A freighters and two of our
passenger 340Bs that we converted to
support the contract.”
Thus, rejuvenated by its ‘fresh start’ and
with a variety of revenue streams, Loganair
looks well set to continue delivering for its
homeland in its new solo career.
64 Aviation News incorporating Jets October 2018
LOGANAIR FLEET
Britten-Norman Islander 2
de Havilland Canada DHC-6-310 Twin Otter 1
Viking Air DHC-6-400 Twin Otter 2*
Dornier 328 3
Embraer ERJ 145 1
Saab 340A Freighter 2
Saab 340B 13
Saab 340B Freighter 2
Saab 2000 5
*(Operated on behalf of the Scottish Government)Above: Two Viking Air Twin Otter Series 400s
are own by Loganair on behalf of Highlands
and Islands Airports to y public service
obligation routes between Glasgow and
Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra.Saab 340 G-LGNK in its Loganair tartan livery.