Loganair to fly solo with bid for London service

LOGANAIR will bid to operate Dundee’s direct air link to the UK capital for the next four years after a split from long-term flight partner Flybe.

The company has spent almost a quarter of a century operating via franchise agreements with other airlines but it will fly solo again from next year after its decade-long relationship with Flybe comes to an end in August.

The move, which FlyBe said had come after a failure to agree “future operational standards and commercial arrangements”, left a question mark hanging over the regular service from Dundee to London Stansted.

However, Loganair managing director Jonathan Hinkles said the intention was to continue flying the route for the next four years — although that will depend on the extension of Public Service Obligation (PSO) subsidy for the service.

In March, the UK Government, Scottish Government and Dundee City Council announced £800,000 of new funding to keep the route flying until the end of this year.

“Loganair remains committed t o t he DundeeLondon Stansted route and its operations at Dundee have been unaffected by the recent diversion of Flybe services between Dundee and Amsterdam to operate from Edinburgh,” Mr Hinkles said.

“The PSO to operate the Dundee-London service is shortly to be routinely retendered by Dundee City Council and we will be bidding to continue providing the service for the next four years.”

L o g a n a i r, w h i ch w i l l become a stand-alone airline on September 1, operates 28 aircraft on scheduled services and contract work and employs more than 600 staff.