Re-building connectivity to/from the Scottish Islands
Loganair, Scotland’s Airline, has set out its plans to re-build connectivity to, from and within the Scottish Islands over the coming weeks. Its move follows the First Minister’s recent announcement of changes to Covid-19 rules on travel to and from Scotland’s island communities, which will progressively allow non-essential travel to take place.
Loganair has continually served every island community throughout the pandemic, maintaining passenger scheduled links for essential travel, delivering record volumes of mail and parcels under its long-standing commitments with Royal Mail, flying contracts for oil and gas companies and providing dedicated air ambulance capability for the Scottish Ambulance Service. A number of passenger scheduled services have been maintained with Transport Scotland support to ensure that lifeline routes have remained open.
The airline is now setting out its plans to re-build its extensive connectivity to and from the Scottish islands. Loganair’s FlySafe healthy flying protocols will remain in place on every single flight for as long as public health guidelines deem these necessary or advisable. Upcoming service developments for island communities include:
From 3 May
Combined Aberdeen-Kirkwall and Aberdeen-Sumburgh services are de-linked to provide dedicated services to each community
Weekday evening services linking Glasgow with Campbeltown, Islay and Stornoway all resume
Flights from Edinburgh to Kirkwall and Sumburgh resume for the first time in 2021, initially with services on five days each week (daily except Tue/Wed)
From 24 May
Edinburgh services to Kirkwall and Sumburgh increase to daily
Glasgow services to Kirkwall and Sumburgh resume, initially with limited service before building up to daily flights during June
Dedicated Glasgow-Benbecula services resume at weekends, which have been shared with Stornoway during the pandemic
Edinburgh-Stornoway flights resume, initially on Mondays and Fridays before building up to a daily service during June
From 1 June
Inverness-Stornoway services move from one to two flights each weekday, restoring a day return capability in each direction
Inverness services to Orkney and Shetland resume
Loganair will also progressively be re-starting services on over 30 cross-border routes linking destinations in Scotland with Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton, Exeter, Newquay, Belfast City and other points in the coming weeks. Some routes – including Aberdeen/Birmingham – have already resumed, providing connectivity to and from the Scottish islands. All flights are on sale via Loganair’s website at www.loganair.co.uk.
Kay Ryan, Loganair’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: ‘We know many of our customers have been waiting for our services to either resume or indeed start in some cases. As the UK’s largest regional airline our network provides much needed connections from the Islands to mainland Scotland and beyond. We are delighted that travel for both leisure and business will be permitted from Monday 26 April and we look forward to our passengers returning to the skies’.
