Loganair

Loganair

IATA ICAO Callsign LM[1] LOG LOGAN
Founded	1962
AOC #	2105
Hubs	Glasgow Airport
Focus cities	Aberdeen Airport Campbeltown Airport Dundee Airport Edinburgh Airport Inverness Airport Kirkwall Airport Norwich Airport Stornoway Airport Sumburgh Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Avios
Airport lounge	Flybe Executive Lounge
Fleet size	28
Destinations	28[2]
Headquarters	Cirrus Building, 9 Marchburn Drive, Paisley, PA3 2SJ, Scotland, UK
Key people	Stewart Adams, CEO
Website	www.loganair.co.uk

Loganair Limited is a Scottish regional airline founded in 1962, with its registered office on the grounds of Glasgow Airport in Paisley, Renfrewshire.^[3] Its tag line is Scotland's Airline.

Loganair operates scheduled services under a Flybe franchise in mainland Scotland and Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles until August 2017, when it will change to independent operations.^[4] It also provides services for the Scottish Air Ambulance Service and night mail services on behalf of Royal Mail. In addition to its main base at Glasgow, the airline has hubs at Edinburgh Airport, Inverness Airport, Dundee Airport and Aberdeen Airport.^[5] The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence. It is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.^[6]

History

Early years

Loganair Britten-Norman Islander in 1967

Loganair Saab 340B in its former British Airways livery

Loganair was established on 1 February 1962 by the Logan Construction Company Ltd, operating as its air charter arm^[7] with a Piper PA-23 Aztec based at Edinburgh.^[8]

In 1967 Loganair took delivery of three Britten-Norman Islander twin-engine eight-seat light commuter airliners and began regular flights between the Orkney islands,^[9] and started operating in Shetland in 1970.^[8] In 1966, after Renfrew Airport closed, the airline established its head office at Glasgow Airport.^[10][11] This aspect of Loganair's operations ceased on 31 March 2006 when the new contract for air ambulance work was awarded to Gama Aviation.

Between 1968 and 1983 the company was owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, ^[8] Towards the end of this period, Loganair bought Shorts 360 and Fokker F27 aircraft.^[8] The company brought jets into the fleet with two British Aerospace 146es. In December 1983 it became a subsidiary of the Airlines of Britain Group. Further aircraft were added to the fleet: BAe Jetstream 31, BAe Jetstream 41, and BAe ATP aircraft. In the late 1980s Loganair was the fastest growing scheduled operator at Manchester airport, and, in terms of number of flights, was the airport's second busiest carrier.^[12]

After a restructure of British Midland Group in 1994, Loganair's routes outside Scotland and the aircraft used operate them were transferred to Manx Airlines. This consolidation of services led to the formation of a new airline, British Regional Airline (BRA Ltd). In 1997, with Loganair now consisting of six aircraft (one de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and five Britten Norman Islanders) and 44 staff, a management buy-out occurred.^[13]

Operations as Flybe franchisee

In June 2005, Loganair was awarded a contract from the Irish Government to operate a daily return service from Knock, County Mayo to Dublin. This public service obligation (PSO) route operated for a period of three years as British Airways, with effect from 22 July 2005. The operation ceased in July 2008, the contract having been lost to Aer Arann. The airline also bought routes from Citiexpress in March 2004.^[7] It flew BA's BAe ATPs on them until 28 May 2005, when further Saab 340 aircraft were purchased to replace them.

Until October 2008 Loganair was a British Airways franchisee, operating flights sold through BA using BA flight codes. Loganair's inter-island operations between the Orkney and Shetland Islands carried out using Britten-Norman Islanders was removed from the franchise agreement in 2004. The flights have since been marketed under Loganair's own name, rather than British Airways'. Loganair became a franchise airline of Flybe, operating in the Flybe colours.^[14][15] Flights are also operated under a codeshare agreement with British Airways connecting flights from Scotland to London. The franchise has been criticised by residents in the Scottish islands for what they perceive to be excessively high fares,^[16][17] and a Facebook campaign set up in June 2015 to highlight the issue attracted over 7,400 "likes" over the course of its first weekend.^[18]

On 8 July 2011, it was announced that Loganair had agreed to purchase Cambridge based ScotAirways. ScotAirways continued to trade as a separate entity (using its original name of Suckling Airways) and holding its own licences and approvals until April 2013.^[19][20]

Services to Belfast and to Birmingham from Dundee ended on 2 December 2012.^[21] After CityJet had terminated its services between Dundee and London City Airport in January 2014, Loganair took over the route, operating From Dundee to London Stansted Airport, with the support of a PSO agreement.^[22]

In May 2015 two Viking Air DHC-6-400 Twin Otter aircraft were acquired by Highlands and Islands Airports to be operated by Loganair on the Scottish Government's Public Service Obligation routes between Glasgow and Cambeltown, Tiree and Barra.^[23] In August 2015 the airline became part of a new regional airline group, Airline Investments Limited (AIL),^[24] along with East Midlands-based airline bmi regional^[25]

Flybe announced to terminate its franchise agreement with Loganair at the end of August 2017,^[4] from when on Loganair will take over all of its present routes under its own brand name.^[26]

Destinations

As of November 2016, Loganair serves 28 destinations in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Norway.^[2] Part of Loganair's operations includes the world's shortest scheduled commercial route, between Westray Airport and Papa Westray Airport, a distance of 1.7 miles.^[27]

Fleet

Loganair Saab 340 in Flybe livery

Loganair Britten-Norman Islander at Fair Isle

As of April 2016 the Loganair fleet consists of the following aircraft:^[28]

Loganair Fleet

Aircraft	In service	Orders	Passengers	Notes
Britten-Norman Islander	2	—	8	Orkney Inter-island operations only
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter	1	—	19	Operated for Flybe
Dornier 328	3	—	32	Operated for Flybe
Saab 340A	2	—	—	Cargo only
Saab 340B	13	—	34	Operated for Flybe
Saab 2000	5	—	50	Operated for Flybe
Viking Air DHC-6-400 Twin Otter	2	—	19	Operated for Flybe on behalf of the Scottish Government
Total	28

Accidents and incidents

• On 12 June 1986, a DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft with 16 people on board^[29] struck high ground on the island of Islay in poor weather. The pilots had mistakenly identified the coastal village of Laphroaig as the town of Port Ellen, near Islay's Glenegedale Airport. There was one fatality, a pilot.^[30]

• In 1996, a Britten-Norman Islander was destroyed in Shetland. The accident occurred during a night time return flight to the aircraft's home base following a medical evacuation flight. The aircraft crashed short of the runway whilst attempting to land after a previous discontinued approach in strong gusting cross winds. The pilot had exercised his discretion to extend the period for which he was allowed to fly that day. The pilot's medical certificate had expired nineteen days earlier thus invalidating his pilot's licence. The pilot was killed in the crash and a doctor on board was seriously injured; a nurse seated at the rear of the aircraft sustained minor injuries.^[11][31]

• On 27 February 2001, Flight 670 a Short 360 registered G-BNMT operating a Royal Mail flight to Belfast, crashed into the Firth of Forth shortly after taking off from Edinburgh at 1730GMT. Both crew members were killed, but there were no passengers on board. An Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) inquiry later blamed a buildup of slush in the aircraft's engines for the crash. Protective covers had not been fitted to the engine intakes while the aircraft was parked for several hours in heavy snow at Edinburgh.^[32][33]

• On 15 March 2005, a Britten-Norman Islander crashed into the sea while descending toward Campbeltown Airport in western Scotland. The aircraft was operating on an unscheduled air ambulance flight. Both occupants, the pilot and one passenger (a paramedic with the Scottish Ambulance Service), died in the crash.^[11][34] As a result of this accident, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) accepted Safety Recommendation UNKG-2006-101 from the UK's accident investigation report, which the European Commission adopted into regulation, making passenger shoulder harnesses mandatory on all commercial air transport aircraft weighing less than 5,700kg (12,500lbs) and having fewer than nine passenger seats.^{[35](p67)[36](p103)[37](p88)[38]}

References

Citations

1. IATA Code search, selecting "airline name" as the search parameter and "Loganair" as the search term. Search conducted 17 February 2015
2. loganair.co.uk - Destinations retrieved 23 November 2016
3. "Contacts: Statutory Information". Loganair. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
4. bbc.co.uk - Flybe terminates contract with Loganair 21 November 2016
5. "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-03. p. 106.
6. "Type A Operating Licence Holders". United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
7. "Scots carrier Loganair lands seven BA routes". The Scotsman. 28 November 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
8. "Brief History". www.loganair.co.uk. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
9. "Loganair is like no other airline – where dogs scurry under seats for take-off, geese scatter across runways and the view from the window catches at the heart". The Scotsman. Johnston Press. 29 April 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
10. Hutchison, Iain. The Story of Loganair. Kea Publishing, 1987. 82. Retrieved from Google Books on 30 June 2010. ISBN 0-906437-14-8, ISBN 978-0-906437-14-8.
11. "Two missing after air ambulance crash". The Guardian. 15 March 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
12. Imrie, Ian (18 May 1989). "Loganair joins airport protest". The Herald. Newsquest. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
13. Ranscombe, Peter (16 January 2013). "Adams lands chief executive's job at Loganair while Harrison pilots board". The Scotsman. Johnston Press. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
14. "Flybe signs historic franchise deal with Loganair" (Press release). Flybe. 14 January 2008. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008.
15. "Loganair ties up deal with Flybe". The Scotsman. Johnston Press. 14 January 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
16. "FLYBE – Is it fleece me?". South of Scotland Liberal Democrats. 23 May 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
17. "Shetland MSP calls for lower airfares in the face of falling oil prices". Deadline News. 6 January 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
18. "Islanders mount campaign against Flybe and Loganair prices". The Shetland Times. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
19. "Loganair acquires UK charter specialist Suckling Airways" (Press release). Loganair. 8 July 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
20. "Glasgow-based Loganair buys Cambridge charter Suckling". BBC News. 8 July 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
21. Argo, Andrew (25 October 2012). "Loganair/Flybe withdrawal is a major blow for Dundee Airport". The Courier. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
22. "Loganair to link to Dundee to London with daily flights". BBC News. 6 June 2014.
23. "Viking Invasion". Airliner World: 6. July 2015.
25. .
26. loganair.co.uk - Scotland's Airline spreads its wings 21 November 2016
27. Clarke, Chris (17 April 2015). "The World's Shortest Commercial Flight Takes Less Than A Minute". Gawker Media / Jalopnik. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
28. UK civil aircraft register search, using "Loganair" as the search parameter. Search conducted 25 April 2016
29. "Review of General Aviation Fatal Accidents 1985-1994" (PDF). CAA. March 1997. Retrieved 2013-01-03.
30. Aviation-Safety.net database entry
31. AAIB Bulletin: 11/96
32. "Air Accidents Investigation: 2/2003 G-BMNT" (PDF). AAIB. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
33. "Plane crash crew found dead". BBC News. 27 February 2001. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
34. http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/formal_reports/2_2006__g_bomg.cfm
35. Formal Report AAR 2/2006 Report on the accident to Pilatus Britten-Norman BN2B-26 Islander, G-BOMG, West-north-west of Campbeltown Airport, Scotland, on 15 March 2005. 2006. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
36. European Aviation Safety Agency. "OPINION NO 04/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN AVIATION SAFETY AGENCY of 1 June 2011 for a Commission Regulation establishing the Implementing Rules for air operations" (PDF). European Aviation Safety Agency. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
37. European Aviation Safety Agency. "2011 Annual Safety Recommendations review" (PDF). European Aviation Safety Agency. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
38. European Commission (25 October 2012). "COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 965/2012: CAT.IDE.A.205 Seats, seat safety belts, restraint systems and child restraint devices". Official Journal of the European Union. 965/2012: L/296 116. Retrieved 9 January 2016.

Bibliography

• Iain Hutchison, The Story of Loganair (1987) ISBN 978-0-906437-14-8 Western Isles Publishing
• Roy Calderwood, Times subject to Tides: the story of Barra Airport (1999) ISBN 978-0-9518958-3-2
• Iain Hutchison, Air Ambulance: sixty years of the Scottish Air Ambulance Service (1996) ISBN 978-0-9518958-2-5
• Tony Merton-Jones, British Independent Airlines 1946-1976 (2000) The Aviation Hobby Shop, West Drayton, Middlesex. ISBN 0-907178-82-0
• Guy Warner, Orkney by Air (2005) ISBN 978-0-9518958-7-0
• Captain Alan Whitfield, Island Pilot (2007) ISBN 978-0-9518958-8-7

External links

Media related to Loganair at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website