Loganair gets tartaned up to fly solo

by Andreas Spaeth
5556
December 01, 2017
Loganair new tartan livery
Loganair's new livery. Photo: Andreas Spaeth.

Loganair managing director Jonathan Hinkles is proud. It  took the head of  the Scottish regional carrier just nine months to come up with all-new branding for the airline.

The company has been around since 1962 and started its first scheduled flights, hops between the Orkney Islands, in 1967.

This makes Loganair the airline that has operated under its own name the longest in the United Kingdom.

But for most of its life, Loganair flew as a local franchise partner for British Airways, although it operated inter-island flights within the Orkneys and Shetlands in its own right already since 2004.

For the last nine years, its trunk routes were flown in cooperation with UK regional airline Flybe under the bigger carrier’s  branding.

Now, after serving others as a franchise partner for 25 years,  Loganair is again flying solo as an independent Scottish airline serving the country’s beaches and highlands

Loganair’s new identity  was inspired by the Scottish tartan pattern that flew with British Airways 20 years ago during its  short-lived Ethnic Tailfins livery program.

“We developed our own tartan livery, it took a while,” Hinkles says, noting Loganair tartan has now received its official registration as number 11,744 in the Scottish Register of Tartans.

loganair new livery
There’s no mistaking the origin of Loganair’s flight attendant uniforms. Photo: Andreas Spaeth.

 

All 30 Loganair aircraft had been rebranded by the end of October as a result of a long-term relationship that turned sour.

“Flybe had unacceptable demands as conditions for extending the existing franchise agreement and asked for guarantees,’’ says Hinkles. “We have instead offered them to continue flying in a code sharing agreement, but they refused.”

Flybe has now teamed up with British regional Eastern Airways to  fly Scottish routes in competition with Loganair.

“They picked five out of eight of our strongest routes, but they fly them with less frequencies, often charging more and with Jetstream 41 aircraft that we got rid of a long time ago,” says the Loganair MD.

But he is still worried.

“Markets here are not big enough for two competitors, they are mad at us. What Flybe does is crazy and not sustainable,” he argues.

He also points out, more happily, that since June, when both airlines first offered tickets on the same routes, two thirds of the bookings went to Loganair.

The Scottish market is indeed special. With a population of 5.4 million people,  its airports together account for about 28 million passengers annually.

The biggest share goes to flights between Scotland and London or other European capitals as well as charter flights to warmer shores.

The intra-Scottish market has a volume of around a million passengers per year, traveling between bigger cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness to and from and within the three archipelagos of the Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands.

Many of these lifeline island routes are operated as subsidized Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes that have to be tendered out within the whole EU, at least before Brexit becomes effective.

At Loganair,  all routes that are flown from Glasgow with Twin  Otters  (such as the famous Barra service with beach landing) and within the Orkneys with Britten Norman Islanders (such as the world’s shortest scheduled flight) are PSOs.

“That amounts to over 34,000 passengers a year, while we are carrying about 700,000 on regular scheduled flights and another 100,000 on charter shuttles for the oil industry between Aberdeen and Sumburgh in the Shetlands,” Hinkles reveals.

Fleet changes afoot

While the fleet for island operations remains a stable factor, there are important changes in stock for the mainline fleet.

“A total of 25 of our currently 30 aircraft have to be replaced,” Hinkles says.  “Namely our two Dornier 328s, 17 Saab 340s and five Saab 2000s.”

Loganair fleet changes
Photo: Andreas Spaeth.

In 2019,  at the latest, when the existing leasing agreements expire, the MD aspires to have a uniform ATR-42 fleet for all routes besides the island operations.

He is especially concerned by the high costs to keep the Saab 2000s running,  observing:  “Their maintenance costs are horrific, this 50-seater doesn’t even offer a cost advantage versus the 34-seater Saab 340.

“Also the Saab 2000 is too heavy with an MTOW of 23 tons, as we have weight-related airport charges here.”

Hinkles points out the fact that Loganair does not face the Brexit issues troubling some airlines because its flying mostly domestic and its international operations are to and  from the UK.

But he is concerned about the weak Pound in this context.

“We pay fuel, maintenance, spare parts and insurance in US Dollars, so this has become much more expensive and we’re having to work hard to offset the financial impact in every other area of our business,” he says.

For now, however, the first priority is to make Loganair a successful,  independent Scottish airline — something no one seriously doubts it can do.

Many people feel like bagpiper Phil Cunningham, who flew from Glasgow to Stornoway on September 1 to give passengers a musical greeting at both airports for as part of Loganair’s launch.

“Loganair has always been a big part of my life so it’s nice to see its colors back, we wish them all the best,” he said.