Orkney renewables projects give Loganair a lift

ORKNEY'S burgeoning renewable energy industry has given Scottish airline Loganair a welcome boost, helping it to a 6.5 per cent rise in passenger numbers on flights to Kirkwall.

Loganair said engineers and other contractors were flying to Orkney during the week to work on wind, wave and tidal projects.

Commercial director Jonathan Hinkles said that passenger numbers between the normally quiet November to March period had risen despite airports being snowbound for much of January.

He said many hotels on Orkney were full during the week so the airline is now working with hostelries on the islands to try to fill rooms with tourists at weekends.

Loganair has laid on extra flights between Edinburgh and Kirkwall, taking the total to three on Mondays and Fridays and two on Sundays.

Hinkles said: "We think a lot of the increase is coming from passengers who are travelling in connection with the renewable energy industry, for which Orkney is rapidly becoming a world centre."

While Hinkle said the increase in traffic to Orkney had come as a welcome boost he also revealed the extent to which the airline had been hit by the harsh winter.

Snow in January sent the airline's total passenger numbers down by 12 per cent across its network, but Hinkle said the overall number carried in the past year was broadly the same as in the previous period.

Loganair is currently running flights between Stornoway and Benbecula in the Western Isles under an interim contract following the collapse last month of previous route operator Highland Airways.

Hinkle said he was hopeful that Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, previously Western Isles Council, would award a full contract to the airline.

Hinkle said: "We'd rather have seen an improvement in business through the recession ending rather than the failure of a fellow airline and the job losses which that always creates, which is sad."

Loganair has taken on two former Highland Airways ground handling staff in Stornoway on an interim basis.

Hinkle said Loganair also continued to monitor the situation at domestic rival BMI, but noted that it could be up to a year before German carrier Lufthansa decides whether or not to shed routes at its UK acquisition.