Loganair

Infobox Airline
airline=Loganair
logo=Loganair.jpg
logo_size=230
IATA=LC
ICAO=LOG
callsign=LOGAN
parent=
founded=1962
headquarters=Glasgow, Scotland
key_people=
hubs=Glasgow International Airport
focus_cities=Edinburgh Airport
Inverness Airport
Kirkwall Airport
Sumburgh Airport
Stornoway Airport
Aberdeen Airport
Dundee Airport| Cambeltown Airport frequent_flyer=Executive Club
lounge=Terraces Lounge
alliance=Oneworld
fleet_size=21
destinations=31
website= http://www.loganair.co.uk

Loganair is an airline based at Glasgow International Airport in Scotland. It operates scheduled services under a Flybe franchise in mainland Scotland and to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, as well as to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Its tag line is "Scotland's Airline". 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.cite news | title= Directory: World Airlines | work= Flight International | page= 106 | date= 2007-04-03]

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. [ [http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?categoryid=183&pagetype=90&pageid=340 CAA Operating Licence] ]

History

Loganair was established on 1 February 1962 as the air taxi service of the Logan Construction Company Ltd, operating a single Piper Aztec from Edinburgh to the city of Dundee. Almost immediately, it was apparent that there was a demand for scheduled services in addition to the primary role as an air taxi, and as such Loganair's fleet grew. As the network expanded to take in more remote islands and communities, Loganair's scheduled network began to emerge.

In 1964 Loganair mounted an inter-island scheduled network in Orkney and a similar network in Shetland commenced in 1970, and the strong association with these island communities continues today. Air ambulance services were established in 1967 covering Coll, Colonsay, Oronsay, Mull and Oban. Loganair continued to maintain its relationship with the Scottish Ambulance Service and continued to provide air ambulance cover with dedicated Britten-Norman Islander aircraft at Glasgow, Kirkwall and Lerwick. However, this aspect of the operations ceased on 31 March 2006 when the new contract was awarded to Gama Aviation to provide an improved service using faster, pressurised, Beechcraft B200C King Air aircraft and Eurocopter EC-135 helicopters.

Under the ownership of the Royal Bank of Scotland between 1968 and 1983, the Loganair network, serving the Highlands and Islands, was assuming its now familiar shape. The growth was spurred by the rationalisation program that British Airways commenced in 1975 with the transfer of "thin" routes to Loganair. Grasping the opportunity, Loganair's scheduled network grew, and Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles were served comprehensively from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and mainland routes were now firmly established. In 1979, Loganair launched an air service between Glasgow and Derry, with Northern Ireland becoming the focus of expansion, as the stage was now set for the next major step forward — a hub of business routes.

Firmly established as Scotland's Airline, new horizons were sought, and in 1980 Loganair took over the Belfast to Edinburgh route from British Airways. In 1981, Loganair faced the might of the flag carrier and competed on the Glasgow to Belfast route, stealthily managing to win market share by transferring its operations to Belfast City Airport. Manchester then became the focus of attention, as Loganair commenced daily services to Edinburgh, Belfast City and Glasgow.

With business traffic representing an ever-increasing proportion of Loganair's annual passenger carryings, Loganair acquired larger aircraft, the Shorts 360 and Fokker Friendship. In September 1983, the British Midland Group took a controlling interest in Loganair, and riding a wave of success and optimism the time came for Loganair to enter the jet market. The BAe 146-200 jet, known as the "Whisper Jet", was at the forefront of short-haul aircraft technology providing a high level of passenger comfort and load-carrying capacity, and two jets were brought into the fleet to expand the growing network to include services to the Channel Islands and mainland Europe. In December 1983 it became a subsidiary of the Airlines of Britain Group.

The fleet continued to grow with the acquisition of BAe Jetstream 31, Jetstream 41, and ATP aircraft, and in the late 1980s Loganair had a comprehensive schedule and charter network. Loganair became the second busiest airline at Manchester, the dominant carrier at Belfast City airport, and a significant player in the development of scheduled services at Southampton. With aircraft utilisation being such a vital factor, Loganair also secured contracts with the Post Office for the night movement of mail and datapost.

However, the promising eighties gave way to the turbulent nineties, and a reorganisation of the British Midland Group activities in 1994 saw the transfer of Loganair's cross-border services and associated aircraft to Manx Airlines (Europe). This consolidation of services led to the formation of a new airline, British Regional Airline (BRA Ltd). July 1994 also saw the significant forging of a relationship between Loganair and British Airways in Scotland, as Loganair became British Airways' second franchise operator, with the residual Scottish internal routes being flown in British Airways livery, but with the same professionalism that typifies the Loganair operation. Whilst still under the ownership of the British Midland Group, a further transfer of the main internal Scottish services took place in 1996.

The route network and operations that were left under the control of Loganair were subject to a management buy-out in 1997. With one De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and five Britten Norman Islanders, the company found strength in its origins and its pioneering spirit, and dedicated itself to the provision of air services in Orkney, Shetland and to the West coast of Scotland.

In June 2005, Loganair was awarded a contract from the Irish Government to operate a daily return service from Knock to Dublin. The public service obligation route operated for a period of 3 years as British Airways, with effect from 22 July 2005. The operation ceased in July 2008, lost to Aer Arann.

Today

Loganair continues to hold a British Airways franchise, it was recently announced that it will come to an end on the 25 October 2008. Under this agreement, Loganair's services are operated under British Airways flight codes, with the range BA 8770-8999 being allocated to the airline's services. Loganair flights are sold through British Airways and the airline participates in BA's Executive Club and BA Miles programme. Loganair is an affiliate member of Oneworld. The franchise service was removed from Loganair's inter island operations carried out by their Islander fleet within the Orkney and Shetland Islands in 2004. Loganair now market these flights under their own brand name, and not the BA name.

The airline continues to expand, and in November 2003 it announced its intention to purchase a tranche of routes from British Airways' Citiexpress subsidiary with effect from March 2004. The seven routes acquired from British Airways Citiexpress were Glasgow - Stornoway, Glasgow - Benbecula, Glasgow - Belfast, Glasgow - Isle of Man, Glasgow - Aberdeen, Aberdeen - Shetland and Edinburgh - Belfast. Loganair continued to operate BA's BAe ATPs on these services until 28 May 2005, when further Saab 340 aircraft were purchased to replace them.

On 26 October 2008, following the termination of the British Airways franchise agreement, Loganair will become a Flybe franchise airline, operating in Flybe colours on all routes. [cite web |url=http://www.flybe.com/news/0801/14.htm | title=Flybe signs historic franchise deal with Loganair | work=Flybe Press Office | accessdate= 2008-01-14 ]

Maintenance

Loganair's maintenance is carried out at Glasgow International Airport and Kirkwall.Many of the airline's Saab and Twin Otter maintenance is carried out at Loganair's Glasgow hangar. Usually, there will be 1 or 2 Saabs and 1 Twin otter in the hangar. The Twin Otters require special attention after every day to remove any salt accumulated during a landing at Barra's beach airport.The airline's Britten-Norman Islander maintenance is carried out at Kirkwall.

Loganair's maintenance has been high praised over the years by manufacturers for its high standard and quality of work carried out at the maintenance base.

Incidents and accidents

* In 1986, a Twin Otter 300 aircraft 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 [ [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19860612-0&lang=fr Aviation-Safety.net databse entry] ] . There was one fatality. This was the UK's last major CFIT incident [ [http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?categoryid=978&pagetype=90&pageid=6282 CAA | Controlled Flight Into Terrain] ]

* In 2000, in two separate incidents within a few weeks, the same Loganair aircraft lost power to alternate engines due to faulty components. [ [http://www.fairisle.org.uk/egef/charlie_alpha.htm Charlie-Alpha] ]

* On 27 February 2001, a Shorts 360 (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. A fatal accident inquiry later blamed a build up of slush in the aircraft's engines for the crash. Protective covering had not been fitted to the engine intakes while the aircraft was parked for several hours in heavy snow at Edinburgh.

* 23 March 2001 the pilot of a Britain Norman Islander aircraft was incapacitated in flight following his exposure to an improperly used hazardous chemical. The aircraft was landed safely when the single pilot on board recovered but he was left with long term health problems that required hospitalisation. The pilot now receives disability allowance. Loganair did not submit an accident report to the AAIB as required, but did submit an account to the Civil Aviation Authority. The case features in the report of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Transport:http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmtran/809/809we40.htm.

* On 15 March 2005 a Britten-Norman Islander (G-BOMG) aircraft crashed into the sea while descending toward Campbeltown Airport in western Scotland. The aircraft was operating on an air ambulance flight and was not on a scheduled journey. The one crew member and one passenger (a Paramedic with the Scottish Ambulance Service) both died in the crash.

Destinations

Loganair serve the following communities: [cite web | url = http://www.britishairways.com/travel/routemapsflash/public/en_gb | title = Destinations
date = | publisher = British Airways]

*Domestic scheduled destinations: Aberdeen, Barra, Belfast, Benbecula, Birmingham, Campbeltown, Derry, Dundee, Eday, Edinburgh, Fair Isle, Glasgow, Inverness, Islay, Isle of Man, Kirkwall, North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray, Sanday, Sumburgh, Stornoway, Stronsay, Tiree, Westray and Wick.

*International scheduled destinations: Dublin.

Fleet

The Loganair fleet includes the following aircraft (at August 2008): [ [http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1&mode=summary&owner=Loganair CAA Aircraft Database] ]

Trivia

*Loganair operates the world's shortest scheduled flight, taking only 2 minutes to hop between Westray and Papa Westray.

*Services to Barra are dependent on the tide, as the Twin Otter aircraft used on the service land on the beach. This is actually the primary reason why the Twin Otters are retained by the company, as a trial period with a Shorts 360 with modified undercarriage to take a landing on sand proved unsuccessful.

Video

* [http://www.cta.uk.com/shop.asp?pid=163 "The Shetland Flyer (DVD)"] , [http://www.cta.uk.com Christian Television Association] (of the UK)

External links

* [http://www.loganair.co.uk/ Loganair]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Loganair&distinct_entry=true Photos of Loganair aircraft]
* [http://www.scotlandone.com/aircraft/do:airlineLoganair Scotland Photo Database - Loganair]

References

Iain Hutchison, 'The Story of Loganair' (1987) ISBN 9780906437148 Western Isles Publishing http://keapublishing.com

Roy Calderwood, 'Times subject to Tides: the story of Barra Airport' (1999) ISBN 978951895832 http://keapublishing.com

Iain Hutchison, 'Air Ambulance: sixty years of the Scottish Air Ambulance Service' (1996) ISBN 9780951895825 http://www.keapublishing.com

Guy Warner, 'Orkney by Air' (2005) ISBN 9780951895870 http://www.keapublishing.com

Captain Alan Whitfield, 'Island Pilot' (2007) ISBN 9780951895887 http://www.keapublishing.com