• Loganair

The birth of what became Scotland’s premier airline occurred almost unnoticed on 1 February 1962, when the construction firm of David Logan (Contractors) Ltd acquired Capital Services (Aero) Ltd. This small Edinburgh-based air-taxi outfit operating a single Piper Apache had been started during 1961 by former Miles Aircraft chief test pilot, Capt. Duncan McIntosh, who was to remain with Loganair as managing director until his retirement in December 1982.

Initially, Logan's new aviation division was employed in transporting company executives and key workers between major construction sites, but in 1963, with the addition of a second Aztec and a Piper Tri-Pacer, Loganair began taking on outside commitments. While the Tri-Pacer was used for aerial photography, particularly for the media and other civil engineering concerns, the second Aztec was utilised on contract work dropping supplies to the military radar station on the remote Atlantic island of St Kilda. The Territorial Army also employed Loganair aircraft as training targets for their photographic gunnery equipment and radar calibration work was undertaken for the Benbecula missile range. The company’s aircraft were also often used for training purposes by the Glasgow Aero Club, which Loganair had formed in 1963. Other remunerative work over the next couple of years involved transporting Littlewoods football pools coupons between Renfrew, Belfast and Liverpool and Premium Bond computer cards from Glasgow to Blackpool and back.

The rudiments of scheduled operations began in October 1963 between Dundee and Edinburgh, largely as a spin-off from the regular shuttle for Logan construction workers engaged in building the Tay Road Bridge, although with a major improvement in surface communications, the service was discontinued in 1964. However, services from Dundee were re-started to Glasgow in 1970, initially from RAF Leuchars until drainage improvements to the city’s Riverside Park airfield were completed a year later. A regular contract to deliver early morning newspapers from Glasgow to Stornoway was commenced in 1964 and during the following ten years of operation not a single delivery was missed. The aircraft was available for charter on the return leg, carrying local produce such as Harris tweed cloth and fresh lobsters or travelling businessmen. Subsequently, Loganair was later permitted to carry 15 passengers each week on this run, later extended south to Benbecula, to where supplies of fresh produce were also delivered to the armed services NAAFI organisation, together with Post Office mail.

By 1965 work for Logan Construction was diminishing, hurried on by the death of the founder’s son, Willie Logan in an air accident while flying into Inverness in January 1966. With the commissioning of an airstrip on the island of Mull, a summer weekend service was commenced by Piper Aztec from 7 July 1966, flown from Glasgow’s new airport at Abbotsinch via Oban and later extended to the neighbouring island of Coll. In this same year Loganair became a separate limited company and plans were hatched to revive the inter-island Orkneys service, pioneered by Edmund Fresson’s Highland Airways back in 1934. With this in mind, the search began for a suitable aircraft capable of operating into the most basic of airstrips, often in marginal weather, eventually settling on the short takeoff and landing (STOL) Britten-Norman Islander, then under development. After route proving trials with the manufacturer’s demonstrator aircraft, Loganair received the fourth production example in August 1967, which commenced the full schedule on 27 August, initially in association with the Orkney Islands Shipping Co and under subsidy from the Scottish Office.

This singular service ultimately connected all nine Orcadian islands and boasted the world’s shortest scheduled air flight; timetabled at two minutes between Westray and Papa Westray. From 9 September 1967 Loganair began serving Oban and Mull during summer months under contract to Benmore Flights, a charter company owned by British-Irish Peer, Viscount Massareene. A change of ownership came about in October 1968 when the National Commercial Bank, Edinburgh, purchased Loganair, perhaps a natural acquisition for an entity that maintained extensive interests throughout Scotland’s scattered islands and a predecessor of which had established the first mobile bank in 1946. In 1969 National Commercial Bank merged with The Royal Bank of Scotland and the airline become a subsidiary of The Royal Bank of Scotland Ltd.

At this time, Loganair became the first UK operator of the Short Skyvan, which also had the distinction of opening the airline's first international service in July 1969, linking Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stavanger. This was later flown by another unusual acquisition, a former BKS Air Survey Beech 18, but unfortunately traffic yields did not live up to expectations and the service was discontinued in November 1970 after incurring a loss of £24,000. Spurred on by the success of the Orkneys operation, Loganair now turned its attention to the Shetland Isles, where a number of airstrips were under construction by the army. Awaiting the opening of Lerwick’s new airport at Tingwall, the first scheduled service connected the extreme southerly and northerly points of Sumburgh and Unst from May 1970, with a five-point inter-island network available two years later. On the west coast, in 1972, the summer weekend service was extended to Coll and Tiree, while the opening of Broadford aerodrome on the Isle of Skye afforded an opportunity for a new service to Inverness via Glasgow from July. At the same time, onward connections from Inverness to Aberdeen and northwards to Wick via Dornoch were put in place, although these services were dropped in November after revenue loads proved disappointing. Since June 1967 an important facet of the airline’s non-scheduled work was the provision of aircraft for the Scottish Air Ambulance Service in a supplementary role at locations unreachable by the DH Herons of the main contractor, BEA. In January 1973 Loganair took over the contract completely and during the subsequent ten years, Loganair’s Islanders safely uplifted almost 10,000 ambulance patients in this vital life-saving role.

On the charter front, Loganair undertook several unusual projects over the years: fog dispersal at Glasgow airport; film work associated with the making of 633 Squadron, Goldfinger and Zeppelin; airlifting supplies to storm-bound islands; helping to re-establish the white-tailed eagle on Fair Isle and similarly assisting in the depletion of the hedgehog population threatening to overwhelm the north Orkney islands. Based on its successful experience with the Islander, in June 1973 Loganair took delivery of the first of eight BN Trislanders, hastening disposal of the Beech 18 and the Skyvan aircraft. Publication of the Civil Aviation Authority’s 1974 report on Scottish regional air transport proved a boon to Loganair. Highlighting the value of third-level operations, it led to the takeover of the Glasgow-Tiree-Barra run in 1975 from British Airways. This was the first of a number of lesser routes ceded by British Airways in an endeavour to turnaround its loss-making Scottish operations; over the next couple of years Loganair gained Inverness-Wick-Kirkwall and Glasgow-Campbeltown-Islay, initially flown by Trislanders.

As early as December 1973, Loganair had been involved in the growing North Sea oil industry, committing a Trislander to ferry personnel between Aberdeen and Sumburgh for Shell Oil, but with traffic increasing rapidly, after just one year this was lost to Dan-Air’s larger HS.748 aircraft and thereafter the Trislander reverted to short-term contract work out of Aberdeen. However, further substantial business warranted the use of larger STOL aircraft able to operate into Unst, thereby avoiding the increasing congestion at Sumburgh. Thus in 1977 two Twin Otters were purchased primarily to support this business, which at its peak employed up to seven aircraft flying for several major oil companies. But in the early 1980s, the leading client, Chevron, decided that the larger DHC Dash 7 would be better suited to this role and the contract passed to Brymon Airways. Loganair did briefly operate the type in 1987, reportedly leasing two examples from British Midland for use on services to Belfast. Two Embraer Bandeirantes were acquired in 1980 for ad hoc oil related charters, but Loganair gradually began to extricate itself from this highly competitive arena to concentrate on its intensive and expanding scheduled network.

Against this background, a new opportunity arose in 1979 with the award of a contract to operate the 'Translink' service on behalf of the British Airports Authority, carrying transatlantic passengers between Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Prestwick. For this new route, two Shorts 330s were purchased together with a spares package at a cost of £2.5m. These aircraft also opened two further new routes linking Edinburgh with Belfast and Kirkwall via Wick; four years later, Loganair traded up to the Shorts 360 and shortly afterwards services were switched from Aldergrove to Short’s Sydenham (Belfast Harbour) airport, resulting in a 40% increase in traffic. By 1983, the cumulative effects of removal of subsidies on some routes, fleet upgrading and the loss of the lucrative Chevron oil contract were taking their toll financially; the total deficit for 1980-3 amounting to over £2m. Earlier, in October 1982, Loganair had taken over the Edinburgh-Manchester route and towards the end of 1983 a 44-seat Fokker Friendship was leased from British Midland to cope with increasing traffic on this sector, a move that was to prove prophetic. For on 2 December 1983 The Royal Bank of Scotland sold 75% of its interest in Loganair to British Midland, while the airline’s financial director, Scott Grier, retained the balance of the airline’s shareholding and took over as managing director.

With its future now assured, Loganair took the opportunity to open summer services from Londonderry to the Isle of Man and Blackpool. For the first five months of 1984 a leased Vickers Viscount appeared on the Manchester route while the F-27 was undergoing repairs following an accident early in January. With the return of this aircraft, a second service to Manchester was opened from Glasgow. In Scotland, Edinburgh-Inverness was commenced, but the Aberdeen base was closed down in October 1984 following withdrawal from oil support operations and Loganair's large hangar was rented out to British Airways Helicopters.

By 1990 Loganair had become a significant regional airline, carrying around 500,000 passengers annually with a first-line fleet of BAe 146-200s and ATPs, now serving Brussels, the Channel Islands and Carrickfin in Ireland with connections to British Midland Airways’ services into London-Heathrow. In 1993 Loganair became the first operator to introduce the BAe Jetstream 41 and in the following year, the Twin Otter rejoined the fleet specifically to overcome the periodic difficulties of operating Shorts 360s on to the beach at Barra. Other activities contributing to the airline’s success were Datapost services on behalf of the Post Office linking Scotland with hubs at Liverpool, East Midlands and Luton, together with a growing aircraft leasing business.

But four years later in March 1994 it was all change again when British Midland decided to transfer all major UK and European regional routes to its other subsidiary, Manx Airlines (Europe). At this time, Loganair gave up its BAe 146 and Jetstream aircraft and reverted to being a primarily Scottish internal airline. Four months later a franchise agreement was concluded with British Airways for the operation of all Loganair services under British Airways colours and in October Loganair was incorporated into British Regional Airlines, an attempt by the parent company to harmonise its various regional airline interests. British Regional Airlines itself was de-merged from its parent body, the Airlines of Britain Group plc, in February 1997 and a year later, on 1 March 1998, Loganair again returned to independent status via a management buyout, engineered by Scott Grier OBE, who had by this time become Loganair’s chairman.

At this stage Loganair was operating a fleet of five Islanders, five Shorts 360s and a single Twin Otter, carrying around 63,000 passengers over its primarily Scottish network. Coincident with the opening of the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh, Loganair placed two Saab SF.340s in service on its trunk routes and over successive years this fleet increased to 15 aircraft, gradually superseding the Shorts equipment. These new machines allowed the airline to return to Manchester and also open a new route to Dublin; a scheduled freight service was also commenced between Glasgow, Stornoway and Benbecula. Then, in October 2002, Loganair again made history, flying in the face of the conservative Free Church of Scotland, by operating the country’s first ever Sunday service from Stornoway on Isle of Lewis.

With the takeover of British Airways’ remaining Scottish routes from CitiExpress, including Belfast and the Isle of Man, effective from 1 March 2004, the ATP joined the fleet with several examples leased from CitiExpress until replacements in the shape of additional Saabs were obtained in May 2005. In June 2005 Loganair was awarded a three-year contract by the Irish government to operate the public service obligation route between Knock and Dublin. With a fleet of 20 aircraft, in 2007 Loganair carried over half a million passengers and recorded a profit of £2.2m for the preceding financial year. The daunting prospect of losing its long-held British Airways franchise was replaced by relief after clinching a similar deal with prominent regional airline Flybe in January 2008, although a co-operative agreement remained in place with British Airways for interchange passengers through Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Following the withdrawal of the Norwegian-operated sea ferry service between Sumburgh and Bergen in 2007, Loganair responded to customer demand with a direct air service run twice-weekly between June and the end August, bringing the total number of destinations serviced to 20 by mid-2008. Taking up the slack left by the demise of FlyWhoosh, Loganair returned to Dundee after a gap of 45 years, with the launch of two new routes to Birmingham and Belfast from mid-May 2008. After the expiry of its code-share franchise agreement with British Airways on 28 October 2008, Loganair’s new arrangement with Flybe covered 25 routes to 18 destinations across the UK, with the exception of those to Bergen and the Orkney and Shetland Islands. In 2011 Loganair announced that it had bought ScotAirways, which remained in business as a separate entity under its original name, Suckling Airways, as an ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) and charter operator until 2013. In 2015 Loganair began operating aircraft on the Scottish government's public service obligation routes between Glasgow and Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra. The franchise arrangement between Loganair and Flybe came to an end in August 2017 and on 1 September the airline began operations in its own right for the first time in 24 years and launched a refreshed corporate livery. During 2018-19 Loganair reacted to the demise of airlines such as Flybmi, Eastern Airways and Flybe by taking over some of their routes and in 2023 leased 30 additional slot pairs at Heathrow airport from British Airways.