Loganair grounds 700 flights over coronavirus

Loganair is to axe at least 700 flights over the next two months after a “marked decline” in bookings because of the Covid-19 virus.
Loganair has warned passengers it may cut 20 per cent of flightsLoganair has warned passengers it may cut 20 per cent of flights
Loganair has warned passengers it may cut 20 per cent of flights

The Glasgow-based airline's move will have the most severe impact on Scottish flights among those announced by nine carriers because of reduced travel demand caused by the outbreak.

It said flights would be cut by 10 per cent after bookings had slumped by 15-20 per cent - and a further 10 per cent reduction was likely to follow.

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The launch of some of the 17 routes taken over from Flybe could also face a "possible short delay".

The first four are due to start on Monday.

A spokesman for Loganair was unable to say which flights would be cancelled on its 70 routes, but said passengers would be contacted.

The airline’s core network is between mainland Scotland and the Northern and Western Isles, but it also flies to England, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Ireland.

It stressed no island would be left without flights: "No island community served by Loganair would be left without an air service".

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"The trend is visible throughout the Loganair network, and there are no signs of the hoped-for ‘staycation’ effect with people remaining in the UK for future planned holidays instead of travelling overseas.

"The effect at present appears to be short-term and is primarily hitting bookings for the remainder of March and through April and May.

"We have already taken action to remove around 10 per cent of our planned flights in April and May, amounting to about 700 flights in all.

"But with a greater deterioration in bookings since those decisions were taken last week, we are now about to embark on a further round of schedule reductions and I am expecting that a further 10 per cent of flights will be cancelled for April and May.

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"We will work to provide as much notice as possible to customers when flight cancellations are made, and an alternative or a refund offered.

"We recognise that there are unique considerations around Loganair flights being used to deliver island pharmaceutical supplies, fly blood samples to testing laboratories and a host of other dependencies on our services.

"We will do all that we reasonably can to take these into account when taking decisions around schedule reductions."

Mr Hinkles also stressed the cuts were unrelated to the takeover of Flybe routes.

He said: "None of the service reductions made due to Covid-19 impact are related to this expansion.

"Any capacity released from cancelled services is being used to bolster our aircraft and aircrew standby capacity for resilience reasons."

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