Transport / Loganair flight performance on the up, meeting hears
There will also be new ‘one plane’ services next year linking Sumburgh and Belfast and Sumburgh and Manchester
LOGANAIR has reported increased reliability on its Shetland flights compared to last year – with punctuality and on-time performance on the up.
He told a meeting of Shetland’s external transport forum on Tuesday that the airline is “delivering to the promise” it made earlier this year.
Meanwhile the meeting heard there will be new “stay on the plane” routes introduced next year between Sumburgh and Belfast, and Sumburgh and Manchester.
These services will operate via Inverness, and the air discount scheme fare will apply over the whole journey.
Wednesday’s meeting heard that punctuality for flights departing within 15 minutes of schedule was up seven per cent on last year for January to August.
Chief commercial officer Luke Lovegrove said there were also 45 per cent less cancelled flights cumulatively during the period.
One element of Loganair’s strategy to improve reliability involved cutting some routes from its wider network outside the isles in a bid to stabilise the daily flying programme.
Farajallah said the airline has “back-up resilience plans” in the event of any technical issues.
Lovegrove said the more stable network is feeding through to customer satisfaction.
He added that this is shown through bookings levels, with forward sales looking “incredibly healthy”.
Forum chair councillor Moraig Lyall commented that the increased reliability has been reflected in the reduced amount of correspondence she receives from people about Loganair.
Shetland Tourism Association chair Amanda Hawick also asked Loganair if the airline would consider adding more flights to Shetland in the summer months to cater for an increasing number of visitors.
With the NorthLink ferry often at capacity in the summer, she said it appeared “demand is outweighing the supply”.
Lovegrove said the airline has introduced larger ATR-72 planes on Shetland routes – which have 72 seats – but said these are not reaching capacity.
He told Hawick that Loganair would only consider adding more services once aircraft are full on a regular basis.
Meanwhile there stands to be four flights a week on the new Sumburgh/Inverness/Manchester service and three a week for Sumburgh/Inverness/Belfast.
The meeting was told that there will still be flights to Inverness which connect with Kirkwall.
Farajallah also told the external transport forum that Loganair is building a “world class” team with new appointments.
One upcoming appointment is Natalie Bush as chief operating officer and accountable manager, who has experience with the Royal Navy, Flybe, the UK air ambulance industry and TUI.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
